Battle hotting up at bottom of county Premier League

In a must-win game for both clubs, Spalding were aiming to get out of the relegation zone while Lindum knew that defeat would drop them into the bottom two.

Lindum won the toss and invited Spalding to bat, Dan Cleveland taking the first wicket on six and the second on 29.

Cameron Hall took the third on 39, but opener Jon Manton was still there and he and Nilanth Atapattu added 61 before Manton was run out for 46.

Atapattu followed nine runs later for 34, but with determined batting lower down the order the score slowly mounted.

Josh Lawrence hit 26 before falling to Hall leaving Spalding on 161-7 and with only two and a half overs to go, the visitors were looking at a total of less than 200.

However Walter Kinlock had other ideas, hitting a quickfire 21 off 14 balls and, aided by George Hix, taking his side 209-8 at the close.

Will Wright and Oscar Styring got Lindum off to a better start with an opening stand of 43, but tight bowling from Atapattu and Kinlock kept the run rate down and by the 20th over Lindum had only reached 72-4.

Then came the stand that changed the game as Carl Stubbs joined Max Cartledge at the crease. Both batted patiently as the score mounted slowly and when Cartledge was bowled by Kinlock for 46, for which he faced 100 balls, the partnership had added 100 runs.

The game was now in the 42nd over and Lindum were still looking at scoring over five an over for victory.

Stubbs and Hall added 25 before Stubbs was out for 57 in the 45th over with 15 still needed.

But Hall and Cleveland were up to the task and Cleveland – who had earlier taken three wickets - hit the winning four with two overs to spare, giving Lindum a four wicket victory and 20 points.

Woodhall Spa also inched themselves a little further away from the threat of relegation with a 20 point win over bottom placed Grantham.

Playing at Jubilee Park, the visitors invited Woodhall to bat, a tactic which seemed to be bearing fruit when, after eight overs, the home side were 44-3.

But once again it was Tayyab Tahir and Ollie Caswell who batted them out of trouble with a stand of 86 and when Caswell was out for 30, skipper Harry Hollingsworth took up the challenge, adding a further 78 before Tahir became Solomon Bascombe’s third victim for 102, taking his total runs for the season over 1,000.

Hollingsworth went on to make 42 and bowler Alfie Lindsey chipped in with a useful 25 before Woodhall were all out for 284 with one ball of the innings to go.

Grantham set off well with an opening stand of 47 but after the second wicket went on 73, this quickly became 98-5, Javad Ghani and Prasanna Jayawadene doing the damage.

From here, the Grantham innings never recovered despite the efforts of Sakhumuzi Ndlela who made 51 and was the final wicket to fall with the total on 146, Jayawardene claiming four wickets.

This leaves Grantham well adrift at the bottom of the table with 95 points while Spalding in ninth have 125, Woodhall are eighth with 142 and Lindum are one above with 145.

At Cross O’Cliff Court, leaders Scunthorpe Town scored a convincing victory over Bracebridge Heath after a third wicket stand of 109 between Sam Jarvis (65) and Priyanthy Khanduri (104). This helped the total to 265-7 and George Drewery then took 5-23 as Bracebridge were all out for 78.

Second placed Bourne, lying just one point behind Scunthorpe, notched up 274-5 against Burghley Park, Dan Freeman hitting an unbeaten 126 and Archie Stroud falling just two short of a century in a 220 run fourth wicket stand with Freeman.

For Burghley, Raiffe Headley hit 87 and Dylan Parker 57 but the home side were all out 35 runs short of their target.

Sleaford stay six points behind Bourne after a slow start at Grimsby which saw them 66-4 in the 12th over.

But George Woods rescued his side with a terrific knock of 142 off 107 balls as the innings ended on 257.

Grimsby in turn found themselves four down after 11 overs and, despite the efforts of Quadrat Quadiri (71), Muhammad Ayub (56) and David Unsworth (42 not out), the home side were all out for 215.