Nail-biting finish as battle goes on at the bottom of Lincolnshire Premier League

Playing at Bracebridge Heath, the home side batted first and ended on 203-9, Avishka Tharindu making 58 and Ben Whitehouse an unbeaten 40.

Spalding had reached 98-3 when Nilantha Atapattu joined Ollie Dring at the crease in a stand which took the score to 145 but both fell on this score, closely followed by two more wickets and Spalding were 149-7.

Ethan Lawrence and Jamie Coles dug in and the total inched up to 192 before Lawrence was out and when the ninth wicket fell the visitors still needed nine to win.

But Coles kept his nerve and with last man Walter Kinlock, who had earlier taken three wickets, saw his side home with an unbeaten 21.

Lindum stay in the bottom two but are now only six points behind Spalding after their win over Grimsby Town.

Harry Brindle took 5-23 off 10 overs to help bowl Grimsby out for 156.

Will Wright then made big inroads into the total with an innings of 92, sharing a second wicket stand of 113 with Max Cartledge (37) and helping his side to victory by seven wickets.

Sleaford slipped off the top of the table after a second defeat in two weeks, this time to Burghley Park.

Batsman James Laud turned bowler to take five Sleaford wickets for 15 runs.

In reply, Burghley Park found themselves on 59-4 but 34 from Sam Potter pushed the score along and despite losing three wickets in the 90s, the home side claimed a two wicket victory to move into third place behind Sleaford and new leaders Scunthorpe Town who were involved in the highest scoring match of the division.

Nearly 600 runs came in the game at Woodhall Spa as Scunthorpe piled on 303 for the loss of four wickets, Tom Giles with 85 and Priyanshu Khanduri making an unbeaten 104.

Woodhall were also on good batting form, opener George Pocklingon getting his team off to a good start with 47 followed by 50 from Dan Pawson and 68 from Tayyib Tahir but the final wicket fell in the last over, the home side having reached 275.

In Championship North, Nettleham stayed top with a win over Alkborough after Rob Cook and Charlie Jubbs shared a stand of 58 to help the leaders to 162-7.

Cook and Jubbs then took three wickets each as Alkborough were all out for 92, skipper Callum Render hitting 42.

Challengers Messingham also won having been set a target of 228 by Scothern, Jack Lawson making 77 and Josh Joy taking 6-40.

In reply, Matt Lawson (73) and Richard Antcliffe (88) put on 111 for the first wicket and the visitors went on to win by six wickets.

Market Deeping beat Newborough by 10 wickets, bowling their rivals out for just 54 runs, to leave both teams on 184 points at the top of Championship South with Boston lying third, eight points behind.

Also in this division, Stewart Mudie made an unbeaten 129 in Grantham 2nd's win over Bourne seconds.

Other centurions were Tom McIlwaine for Bracebridge Heath seconds with an unbeaten 109 in Division One North, Matt Carter (102 not out) for Billingborough in Division One South and J. Dickinson with 101 for Caythorpe in Division Three Central.

J. Cowley took 6-20 for Caythorpe while the best bowling figures of 7-11 came from Anthony Clark of Bracebridge Heath thirds.