Milton Keynes close the gap after North Crawley slip up

Milton Keynes celebrate a wicket against New Bradwell

Milton Keynes closed the gap at the top to 28 points after seeing off New Bradwell, while leaders North Crawley suffered a surprise defeat to Olney.

Kieran Lampard was once again in run-scoring form for New Bradwell, hitting 60 at the top of the order from just 44 balls. But his partners were not in as rich a vein of form, and runs were hard to come by. Joe Fairbrother took 3-30 for MK, though they were not able to take out New Bradwell in the 40 overs, with the innings ending 199-7.

MK lost Nimesh Chavda (11) with the score on 34, but half centuries for Nick Hillman (53) and Neil Gordon (56 not out) guided MK to a routine win (203-3) by seven wickets.

Olney's resurgence of late gave MK a helping hand in the title race as they saw off North Crawley by four wickets. While Alex Walker, the league's second highest runs-scorer, hit 82 at the top of the order for North Crawley, they only posted 196-7 as Josh Selvey ended with figures of 3-31.

New Bradwell's Kieran Lampard at the crease

Despite losing opener Peter Young (8) and Jack Watson (4) cheaply early on, Jeremiah Shields (40) and Iain Keeping (60) helped guide Olney into a winning position. But it would be a nail-biting finale, leaving it until the final over to crack the winning runs (199-6).

Westcroft suffered a surprise defeat to relegation scrappers Great Horwood. A monster opening partnership between Stuart Parker (117) and Sam Willet (57) saw Horwood cruise to 216-2. But Westcroft's reply would come up short, despite 52 from Alex John in the middle of the pack, bowled out for 195.

New City remain in the relegation zone after a six-wicket defeat to Thurleigh. Dharmesh Mistry's 55 was the highlight of their 164 all out, but an unbeaten 61 from Martin Bennett saw Thurleigh (166-4) ease to victory.