Sandwich Town's attempts to improve on their lowly position in Shepherd Neame Kent League Division 1 suffered a setback when they lost by 13 runs at home to The Mote.

The outlook appeared promising as Craig Spanton returned figures of 3-19 off 12 overs, with four maidens in helping reduce the visitors to 43-7 at one stage.

But dogged resistance from The Mote’s tail-end, in which Laurence Waters hit 45 and Kym Daley an unbeaten 28, pushed the score to 143.

The Sandwich batting disappointed and they were all out for 130.

The club’s promotion-chasing second team suffered a surprise setback in 2nd XI Division 1 as they lost by 58 runs to third from bottom Harvel 2nds.

Replying to Harvel’s 200-7, Sandwich rallied after a poor start with Daniel Burgess (41), Tamsin Beaumont (28) and Kevin Beaumont (35 not out) boosting the innings before the tail collapsed and they were all out for 142.

More cricket in this week's Mercury