Sandwich Town Cricket Club’s Shepherd Neame Kent League season is up and running after they gained their first Division 1 win of the campaign on Saturday.

But Matt van Poppel’s side did it the hard way with a thrilling last-over victory against second-placed The Mote at Maidstone.

Skipper van Poppel hit the winning boundary off the penultimate ball as Sandwich, set a target of 261-4, got home with two wickets to spare.

Van Poppel said: "It was an excellent win but we should have beaten Ashford the week before. Things are starting to come together now and, with four of our next five league games at home, we can hopefully begin moving up the table."

The chief architect of The Mote’s total was James Hodgson, whose unbeaten 147 included 29 off the last over of the innings.

Openers Dave Scoggins (71) and Craig Snell (52) gave the Sandwich reply a good start with a stand of 86 and Vishaul Singh then carried on the good work before running himself out for 78, which sparked a middle order collapse.

Van Poppel added: "We had been cruising until Vishy’s departure but things then got a bit nervy and we still needed seven off the last over. But we managed to scramble home and it’s great to get that first win."