LINCOLNSHIRE PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND-UP

Spalding secured their second successive Lincolnshire Premier League victory with a five-wicket win at Bracebridge Heath on Saturday.

Nilantha Atapattu took four wickets before Ethan Lawrence struck an unbeaten half-century to steer Spalding to an excellent away success.

The hosts had elected to bat first and were indebted to opener Sam Mason (64) and Brett Houston (61) for helping them to reach 198-9 from their 50 overs.

Atapattu was the pick of the Spalding attack with 4-34 from 10 overs while Brandon Andrews took 2-43 from a similar stint.

Despite losing openers Jon Manton and Mitch Freeman for 10 and 19 respectively, Lawrence formed two crucial partnerships with Ollie and Chris Dring.

A 57-run stand with Ollie Dring (37) took them past the century mark before a further 68 runs were added with Chris Dring who also made 37.

Lawrence was then joined by George Morris to secure victory for Spalding with more than 10 overs to spare.

The win moved Spalding into sixth spot and just behind derby rivals Market Deeping and Bourne.

Deeping bounced back from a heavy loss against Lindum last week with a superb two-wicket triumph at league leaders Sleaford.

The previously unbeaten table-toppers were dismissed for 231 after batting first with Hayatullah Niazi taking 3-41 and skipper James Hook returning 2-32.

Solid batting from the middle order then ensured a successful run chase for Deeping with two overs to spare.

Dave Sargeant struck 49 and Joe Malton made 47 before Hook hit seven boundaries in an unbeaten 45.

Bourne were unbeaten to take advantage of Sleaford's slip as the reigning champions suffered back-to-back defeats following a 53-run reversal at Grantham.

The hosts made 224-7 as Sam Evison and Jack Berry both bagged a brace of wickets for the Abbey Lawn side.

Evison (37), Berry (28) and Jonny Cheer (29) then top-scored in the Bourne reply but they were dismissed for 171 to drop down to fifth place in the table.

2023-05-29T11:10:09Z dg43tfdfdgfd