Teenager Neal offers hope for Haxey

Louth enjoyed a comfortable seven wicket win over Grimsby Town in the Readers Lincolnshire ECB Premier League but Bracebridge and Woodhall Spa continue to dominate with seven weeks of the season remaining.

After a poor start which saw them slump to 89 for five, Grimsby made a good recovery to post 186 after James Brindle pitched in with five wickets but Louth's Graham West made an unbeaten half-century to cruise past the target.

Bracebridge beat bottom of the table Haxey by eight wickets in a disappointingly low scoring match at Cross-O-Cliff Court though despite being on the losing side, 16 year old George Neal was voted Man of Match for his 3-19 from six overs in what was a most promising performance by the youngster.

In reply, Jason Vero made 44 from 43 balls in his last match with Bracebridge before flying back to Australia while Vikram Atri struck five fours in his innings of 24 including the last eight runs of Bracebridge's innings which was completed for the loss of just two wickets in 16.3 overs.

It was Haxey's tenth defeat in 15 matches and with just 49 points and seven matches left, the drop is looking like a certainty.

Sleaford took seven points from their 11 run defeat by Woodhall Spa to pull them away from the relegation zone but at 159 for five, they were contemplating victory after Warren Nel followed up his 6-69 with a 68 ball 59 to raise hopes but they were dashed when Aaron Onyon (5-62) and Andrew Crook (4-55) pegged the visitors back to 196 all out in 48.2 overs.

Lindum's Karanjit Bansal was made man of the match for his innings of 51 and a bowling analysis of 5-46 which pulled his side out of the bottom three with a eight run win over Nettleham who in reply to the visitors 194 were bowled out for 186.

Caistor's problems deepened with an eight wicket defeat at the hands of Bourne who took less than 25 overs to reach the 174 target thanks to a feisty 60 from Mark Fotheringham, which included six fours and four sixes.

Market Deeping were held to a losing draw at home by Messingham after Nick Cowley scooped seven wickets to restrict the visitors to 218. Jason Scheepers top scored with 79 but Deeping lost regular wickets, mainly to Ali Arman (2-39) and Matthew Snee (3-31) and were held to 155 for seven with Jonathan Wright making 62.