March Town came agonisingly close to causing a major upset at Fen rivals Wisbech Town before Brad Apted’s spell snatched a 15 run win for the hosts.

On a flat deck, Wisbech batted first and posted 207-9. Josh Bowers top scored with 44, with Gary Freear (31) and Sam Albutt (28) also contributing.

March’s wickets were shared between Chris Ringham (2-29), Ash Vodnala (2-39), Toby Nulty (2-31) and Andy Wright (2-51).

David Hodson (27 off 19) got March’s reply off to a flyer, before Vodnala (54) and Matty Vail (36) got the visitors to 177-5, just 30 runs short of the target.

Freear, with almost his last throw of the dice, threw the ball to Brad Apted, who was playing his first game of an injury plagued season.

In his four game changing overs, Apted took 4-13. Ringham was the last man to fall, caught by wicket keeper Bowers off Freear. Freear finished with 2-25, while Sam Rippington took 2-43.

The result sees second placed Wisbech keep up the pressure on Tucker Gardner league leaders Ramsey, while March drop into the relegation zone.

Freear said: “We were pretty poor all the way through. 200 looks a decent score but on that wicket we should have done a lot better than that.

“David Hodson got them off to a flyer and Ash Vodnala was very calm and collected.

“Brad Apted had not played all season because of a dodgy knee but we were struggling for bowlers this week so he said he would play. “He’s a slow left arm swing bowler, which is different. There are not many of them. I think three wickets fell on 177.

“We’ve done well to win when, yet again, we were nowhere near hitting top form.”

Ringham said: “We did extremely well to keep Wisbech down to 207. It was a really good bowling and fielding effort.

“We produced one of our best batting performances of the season. It’s very disappointing that having got ourselves in such a good position we threw it away.

“We were getting too excited because it was against Wisbech.

“Wisbech played well towards the end. Gary Freear captained well and Brad Apted, who tends to do well against us, took four wickets in four overs.

“In many ways, the performance was key. Going in to the game, we were massive underdogs, so to produce that performance against such a good team gives us a massive boost.”