While the home side came into the match-up equal on points with Hadspen, the loss will see them drop off the pace slightly - unable to defend their 162 runs.

Wayne Ford (52), Drew Clark (42) and Daniel Kirk (38) were the sole batters to reach double figures as Joel Coad took 4-29 to put the Saints in the box seat.

From there, despite the best efforts of Kirk (3-29), the Saints batters chipped away at the target, reaching it in the 36^th over with James Hayward (28), Jay Leslie (27) and Lachie Mason (26) leading the way.

Hadspen star Thanuka Dabare hit his first 40-over century for the season to steer Hadspen to a 133-run victory over ACL.

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

Hitting 113 from just 66 balls, he combined with fellow opener Dane Anderson (56 off 30) for 118 runs before the latter was dismissed while Liam Reynolds' unbeaten 49 off 45 saw them to 9-296.

Simon Chappell's 51 wasn't enough to keep up with the Chieftains' impressive score, finishing up at 9-163 with Kyle Strochnetter (3-29) the chief destroyer.

Longford jumped into second place with a comfortable seven-wicket win over the Evandale Panthers.

The Tigers' bowlers, led by Yeshan Wickramarachchi (3-26) restricted the Panthers to 7-119 and cruised to the total in the 26^th over, thanks to the work of Richard Howe (57* off 46) as Dion Blair (14* off 57) remained patient up the other end.

Perth picked up their fourth win of the season, accounting for Bracknell by seven wickets at home.

Keeping them to 123 thanks to economic bowling from Ethan Goldfinch (2-13 off eight overs) and Matthew Rigby (2-15 off six overs), the Demons rolled home with strong scores from John Hayes (52*) and Goldfinch (46).