Freeman falls just shy of century as Spalding Town end their season with a narrow loss

Spalding Town’s first season back in the Lincs ECB Premier League ended with a nail-biting four-wicket defeat against Scunthorpe Town on Saturday.

Mitch Freeman cracked 99 as Town were bowled out for 197 with one ball of their 50 overs to spare after being put into bat at Seas End Hall.

Visitors Scunthorpe then reached 198-6 in 48.2 overs in reply, with their innings concluding in near-darkness.

Spalding lost their final 12 games of the season after making a promising start and finish 11th in the 12-team division.

A maximum of two teams can go down if there are two teams eligible for promotion, meaning Town must wait to discover their fate.

Chris Dring’s side certainly didn’t play like a team in that kind of form, but relied heavily on the innings of Australian all-rounder Freeman.

His 99 came off 134 balls as he cracked seven fours and four sixes, but the opener saw wickets tumble around him at regular intervals before finally being clean bowled by George Drewery (4-42).

Indeed, Spalding’s score was on 197-5 when Freeman and Josh Lawrence (26) saw their 64-run stand come to an end. Amazingly, they were soon all out for 197 with the final five wickets falling for no runs.

Ethan Lawrence (17) was the only other Town player to make double figures and shared a healthy 69-run partnership with Freeman for the second wicket.

Scunthorpe’s reply was also dominated by one player, with Ian Snowden (92 not out) steering them to glory.

Spalding did make life difficult for them with Nilantha Atapattu (2-21) dismissing both Karanjit Bansal (8) and Jamar Ifill (12), while Freeman (1-33) had Scott Nicolson (18) caught behind.

Josh Lawrence (2-52) also claimed the wickets of Savraj Mijjar (10) and Tom Giles (0), while Brandon Andrews (1-45) dismissed Henry Wilson (20). But Snowden kept his cool to get his side over the line with ten balls to spare.

Town end the season with four wins and a respectable total of 142 points.