Chesterfield edged out in National Championship cliffhanger
Chesterfield paid for not cashing in on a flying start in their Rothesay National Club Championship tie at Attenborough.
They fell 20-30 runs short of the total they looked like posting at the Nottinghamshire club and eventually lost by five wickets off the penultimate ball of the match.
Chesterfield appeared to be in a dominant position when they reached 146-2 in the 26th of their 40 overs.
Openers Luke Westwell and Ben Kingham laid the platform with a cracking stand of 63 in 12 overs.
The tall, left-handed Kingham set the initial pace with some crisp off-drives before Westwell began peppering the leg-side boundary with a series of powerful strokes off the front and back foot.
Westwell fell for 43 before skipper Harry Wilmott raced to 29 off just 21 deliveries.
But, for the second time on consecutive days, Wilmott was caught off the next ball after hitting a six and this time Chesterfield lost their grip on the match.
The home side's spinners put a brake on the scoring and took wickets regularly, Alex Lawrence claiming 4-19.
Kingham was sixth out for 79 with the score on 184.
Only Jordan Lemon (27) made a telling contribution among the later batters as Chesterfield closed their innings on 220-9.
There were only seven boundaries in the last 14 overs following Wilmott's dismissal. On a good batting wicket and a fast outfield that lack of acceleration was to prove crucial.
Chesterfield wanted early wickets and their first breakthrough came from a superb piece of fielding by Lemon at mid-wicket.
Suman Shrestha played a ball on the leg side and set off for a single. He was sent back but could not make it in time as Lemon swooped on the ball and threw down the striker's stumps.
Chesterfield's only other wicket before the mid-innings drinks interval, reached at 99-2, came when pace bowler Matt Taylor bowled Matthew Hill. Left-arrn spinner Mitch Adlington joined the attack on the resumption and revived Chesterfield's hopes.
He found more in the wicket than anyone else, getting some deliveries to turn and bounce, and bowled Josh Wilson and Parakrama Thennakoon in successive overs.
However, Lucas Stentiford was well set by that stage and, playing powerful strokes all round the ground, he was the key figure for the rest of the match.
Wilmott had Affan Mustafa caught off a skier to make the hosts 163-5 in the 32nd over. But Morgan Jones arrived to give Stentiford strong support in the closing overs.
Chesterfield rarely looked like taking wickets and it became a question of whether they could restrict the scoring.
The asking rate was about seven an over for much of the time and, with Stentiford at the crease, Attenborough had the edge. Kemira Wijenayake put the issue in the balance by conceding only five singles in the penultimate over, leaving Attenborough still needing 13.
That came down to five off the last two balls and Stentiford settled it by hitting the first of them for six to finish 121 not out.