Skegness post first outright win

Skegness celebrated their first outright win since their promotion to the Readers Lincolnshire ECB Premier League, a victory that moved them up to third in the table.

But the seasiders were made to fight for their points by Grimsby and were left with just two wickets standing and four balls of the match remaining when the winning runs came.

Grimsby skipper Richard Antcliffe moved back to the top of the runs list, becoming the first player this season to reach 450 when he hit 75 of his side’s total of 208 for eight.

When Antcliffe was out, Grimsby were 128 for five but good batting from the lower order, including Steve Crossley with 27 and Lee Charlton with 21, denied Skegness full bowling points.

The Skegness innings followed much the same pattern, with no sizeable wicket partnerships. Saeed Bariwala made 65, going with the score on 94 for three but the mainstay of the innings was veteran Paul Butler who would not be unseated despite wickets falling regularly at the other end.

At 198 for eight, Grimsby still scented victory, particularly with Gihan Perera on the attack having already taken five wickets. But Michael Jackson joined Butler and this pairing took Skegness to 211 for eight in the final over, Butler unbeaten on 72 and Perera with 5-50 off 15 overs.

Above Skegness in the table, leaders Bracebridge Heath suffered a rare setback at the hands of Bourne while second placed Nettleham went down heavily to Sleaford who, prior to this match, had been languishing in the relegation zone.

At Cross O’ Cliff Court, Bracebridge invited Bourne to bat, a decision that appeared to have backfired when the visitors reached 128 for one. Chris Bamber hit 44, sharing a second wicket partnership of 95 with Ben Stroud before becoming Tom Khoza’s first victim.

Stroud went on to make 80 and take Bourne to 193 before he too fell to Khoza and Owen Smith’s 35 helped the score along, the final wicket falling on 247 with one ball remaining as Khoza recorded the day’s best bowling figures of 6-77 off 15 overs.

Charlie Hopkins then delivered the perfect start for Bourne, taking two wickets in the opening over with only one run scored. However, Paul Cook and Mark Fell dug in and when Fell was out for 26, the home side had 76 on the board.

Cook and George Neal added another 33 but Cook lost two more partners before being bowled by Chris Dring for 86, in which he hit 14 fours and one six. This left Bracebridge on 142 for seven with 12 overs left but the lower order defied the bowlers, Aaron Onyon and Stuart Airey putting on 30 and Airey and Brett Houston seeing the overs out to 191 for eight to give their side a share of the points.

At Mulsanne Park, Sleaford – who were without new skipper Oliver Burford – invited Nettleham to bat and soon had their host in trouble, Dammika Gunawardena and Sam Burrows taking a wicket each with only 16 scored.

But it was the introduction of acting captain Stephen Bradford to the attack that sealed Nettleham’s fate, the spinner dismissing opener James McKay for 25, and lower down the order, taking the wicket of David Hutchinson for 37 after he and Ed Bosworth had put on 66 for the eighth wicket.

Bradford finished with five for 31 off 17 overs and Gunawardena four for 31 off 13 as Nettleham were all out for 144 in the 49th over.

In reply, Sleaford openers Tom Shorthouse and Jonathan Adams had 73 on the board before Adams was out for 36. Shorthouse followed for 35 to make it 81 for two and the third wicket fell on the same total.

But Luke Hollingworth again put in a good performance, adding 55 with Bradford and finishing unbeaten on 44 as the visitors claimed a five wicket win with eight overs to spare.

These 20 points moved Sleaford out of the bottom two, but Caistor were left in deep trouble following a heavy defeat at the hands of Woodhall Spa.

Only Harry Boulton with 19 and Nick Dobbs with 10 reached double figures at Jubilee Park as Matt Sargeant and Nick Bishop raced through the batting line-up, Sargeant with six for 20 off 13 overs and Bishop with four for 19 off six.

Caistor were all out for 65 in 25 overs and Warren Nell with 33 and Andrew Crook (34) made short work of this total, knocking off the winning runs in the 12th over.

Caistor lie 11th in the table but are under threat from bottom team Messingham who picked up welcome points at Lindum, despite being unable to match their opponents’ total of 205 for nine.

Richard Cross made the day’s only century after Danny Rands had reduced Lindum to 25 for two. Cross and Richard Bishop (34) put on 83 for the fourth wicket and when Rands finally had Cross stumped for 113 , Lindum had only a couple of balls of the innings remaining.

Ben Morrison took the first three Messingham wickets for 39 runs but all the efforts of the Lindum bowlers could not unseat opener Ian Dawson who, despite seeing wickets fall steadily at the other end, finished unbeaten on 60 and helped Messingham to 132 for eight and a share of the points.

Market Deeping’s game with Louth was called off because of a rain affected pitch.