The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding Town’s winless run in the Lincs ECB Premier Division continued on Saturday as they suffered a 159-run defeat against Bracebridge Heath.
Visitors Bracebridge opted to bat first after winning the toss at Seas End Hall and racked up an imposing 259-7 from their 50 overs.
Town, who haven’t won since seeing off Grantham at the end of June, couldn’t chase that down as they were bowled out for 100 inside 20 overs in reply – making it six defeats on the spin.
Nilantha Atapattu (1-27) broke a 31-run opening stand to get rid of Sam Mason (13) for the first wicket as the visitors started well, but that only brought Taylor Fell (44) and Kit Spencer (64) together.
The pair put on an impressive 83 partnership to move Bracebridge into a position of dominance.
Spalding hit back when Harry DeCamps (1-44) took the scalp of Fell and Mitch Freeman (2-46) dismissed Alex Willerton (7).
Freeman also removed Spencer caught and bowled. but by the time he’d departed Bracebridge were well positioned on 176-4.
Indeed, Alex Moor (48) and Ashton Fell (34) took full advantage with a rapid 66 partnership to push the away team to within eight runs of 250 before Brandon Andrews (1-34) dismissed Moor.
Barnaby Dring (2-43) picked up two late wickets as James Holden (0) and Dan Cliffe (2) departed, but Heath were in command at the halfway stage.
That position was further enhanced when the hosts slumped to 11-4 in their reply.
Jon Manton (6) was the first man out, bowled by Mark Newbould (3-31) before opening partner Freeman was trapped LBW by Fell for an 11-ball duck.
Ollie Dring (3) followed after becoming Newbould’s second victim, then Raj Sangha (0) was run out after facing just two balls.
Josh Lawrence (7) and skipper Chris Dring (10) hung around for a while as Town reached 34-4, but three quick wickets soon turned that into 36-7, Ethan Lawrence (0) the other man out.
Andrews followed for a four-ball duck as Dan Cliffe (3-22) struck, before Atapattu (38) and Barnaby Dring (13) rallied with a 55-run stand for the ninth wicket.
Atapattu, in particular, enjoyed himself with seven fours and a six in his 32-ball knock.
But both men fell in quick succession, leaving Town all out in just 19.4 overs.
That gave Spalding just three match points and they remain second-from-bottom in the standings.
However, Saturday sees them visit basement side Skegness, who have lost all of their 16 matches so far this season.
That clash gets underway at 11.30am.
