Thrilling three-way title race is going down to the wire after tense win for Peterborough Town

Peterborough Town kept their hopes alive with a tense five-run win over leaders Uppingham Town on a tricky wicket at Bretton Gate on Sunday. The track had been left uncovered against overnight rain to leave a soggy surface which took plenty of spin.

The city side battled, and rode their luck, to 151 all out with top three Bashrat Hussain (32), Siddharth Shanmugaraj (30) and Zeeshan Manzoor (27) scoring best.

But Uppingham, after reaching 47-1, also lost wickets regularly and slipped to 123-9 against the nagging accuracy of Sandeep Nanda (3-19) and Hussain (3-32). The last wicket pair added 23 before Arsalan Manzoor returned to claim his third wicket and complete fine figures of 3-38.

With Newborough, who would have won their first title by now but for a points deduction, thrashing bottom club Uffington by 215 runs, all three teams can still finish top.

Standings: 1 Uppingham P13 195pts, 2 Newborough P13 192pts, 3 Peterborough Town P12 190pts.

Newborough are probably the outsiders as they need to beat Town for the second time this season at Bretton Gate next Sunday (September 13, noon) and hope that Uppingham drop points in their final game at Barnack on the same day.

Perhaps crucially Town have an extra game to play at home to Ufford Park on September 20. A total of 26 points from two games – you can get 20 for a win – would guarantee the city side top spot.

Matty Mills (153no, 139 balls) and Jack Stokes (114no, 101 balls) filled their boots against Uffington with an unbroken second wicket stand of 275 as Newborough piled up 316-1 in their 45 overs. Vamshi Parvathaneni (4-14) returned the best bowling figures as Uffington replied with 105 all out.

Stokes has now passed 2000 runs for the season after his second ton of the weekend.

Orton Park and United Sports will fight for the second promotion spot in Division Two alongside Pak Azad next weekend. Orton, who are second after beating Werrington by seven wickets on Sunday, host East Carlton and United Sports, who had a walkover win today, entertain City CC seconds.

Peterborough Town were beaten by six wickets by high fliers Geddington in their Northants Premier Division fixture at Bretton Gate on Saturday. A third wicket stand of 167 between captain David Clarke (86) and Nick Green (67) rescued Town from 6-2 and some late hitting from Zeeshan Manzoor (48no, 29 balls, 5 sixes) pushed them up to a respectable 50-over total of 255-7.

But the visitors paced themselves superbly to ease home with over two overs to spare.

Oundle stormed to their victory target of 198 at Kislingbury in 28 overs for the loss of just one wicket. Mark Hodgson (50), Josh Smith (69no) and Sam Batten (61no) all batted freely after David Foster had taken 4-37.