Beckenham secured a dramatic six run win at Lordswood on Saturday in the Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League Premier Division to keep them within touching distance of table toppers Blackheath, writes Josh Fordham.

Beckenham posted 263-8 off their 55 overs with Will MacVicar (89) and Alex Senn (55) building a good platform at the start of the innings before the middle order kept the scoreboard ticking, led by Johan Malcolm with 34.

Daljeet Singh was the pick of the bowlers for Lordswood with 3-50.

The Lordswood openers made a good start in chasing downing their target with Ranjit Singh scoring 68 and Lyndon Lockhart 46. Essex’s Greg Smith added 59 before being trapped lbw by Raza Ali Dar to take the total to 197-3.

A middle order collapse saw Lordswood need six runs off the last two balls with one wicket remaining. Junaid Nadir dismissed Dan Maters to secure the win for Beckenham.

Blackheath stayed top of the table with a winning draw at Folkestone but were stifled by their opponents to prevent them from getting maximum points.

Tanveer Sikandar and Warren Lee both scored 38 and Michael Thornley 31 as Blackheath were bowled out for 197 in 53 overs.

Sam Ireland took 4-47 to restrict the batting side to under 200.

Folkestone batted out their overs and massed a total of 163-8 off 57 overs after Dipyan Paul caused them problems with the ball and finished on 5-37.

Sam Ireland scored 30 and Stuart Graham 62 not out to hold out for a draw.

Hartley beat Bexley by seven wickets and are 15 points behind Blackheath.

James Thompson (4-31) and James Hockley (4-42) restricted Bexley to 148.

Hartley made light work of chasing down the runs doing so in 27 overs with Nick Hendrie scoring 48 and Charlie Hemphrey an unbeaten 54.

Sevenoaks Vine won at Sandwich Town as Tom Parsons took 5-45 in their six wicket victory.

Sandwich only managed 167 as they were bowled out in 46.1 overs.

Anthony Shales (53), Zac Crawley (48) and Michel Barber (48 not out) knocked off the runs in 41.3 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Tunbridge Wells cruised to an eight wicket win at the Nevill Ground over Bromley.

The home side bowled Bromley out for 151 as Patrick Sadler took 5-46.

Nick Selman finished 63 not out and Will Stickler with 61 not out as the chased down the runs with eight wickets to spare.