Berwick win keeps the pressure on at the top of the league
Berwick maintained their promotion push with a five-wicket win at Allendale.
The Borderers are comfortably second in NTCL Division Three and remain eyeing Blagdon Park in top spot.
Elliott Keenan hit his fourth half century of the season with a 59 and Dominic Donaldson ran up 42 before he was trapped lbw by Ben Litchfield with Berwick putting a total of 180/5 up on the scoreboard.
James Thompson starred with the ball after tea as he took 5-35, with Keenan 3-31, as Berwick took a nail-biting finale with the hosts all out for 177 – with just three balls to spare.
The responsibility of bowling the final over fell to Louis Outterson with Allendale needing just six runs to win it.
His first delivery was hit away for two runs by Sparke. His second was knocked defensively for no runs.
The third, with the pressure on both sides, was hit up in the air and the sense of joy and relief as Arun Ramasamy took the catch was palpable.
Berwick take on Bomarsund at the Pier Field on Saturday.
Tillside are still deep in trouble at the foot of Division Two as they suffered a 110-run defeat at the hands of Cowgate Sports.
The visitors’ Jaswinder Singh scored 63 and Modussar Ali 48 as they ran up a total of 241/7 with Sean Whitty and Alisdair Skelly both taking two wickets each.
Whitty was 2-28 and Skelly 2-50 as Cowgate proved difficult to dislodge.
Skelly came up just short of his half century with a good 44 and Gareth Hill knocked 35 as Tillside were all out for 131 in the 41st over.
Omid Majrohy topped the bowling figures for Cowgate with 4-31.
Tillside travel to second-placed GEMS this weekend.