Sutton captain Keith Medlycott believes his side were robbed of their rightful place at the top of the Shepherd Neame Surrey Championship by a farcical rule that promotes defensive cricket.

The former Surrey boss inspired his side to a winning draw at Wimbledon on Saturday with a century.

The four points should have put Sutton top, but they were penalised a point for a slow over rate, a rule that Medders branded a "shamozzle".

"This rule is going to cost us the chance of winning something because it penalises the attacking cricket I expect my teams to play," said Medlycott.

"The people who have come up with this rule are fools.

"They are encouraging teams to either bowl with spinners or bowl their quicks off five paces with no slips.

"If they think that is the way to produce better cricket then I'm afraid it's madness."

Rules in the Surrey Championship state that teams must complete 17 overs an hour.

On Saturday, Sutton only managed 16 overs an hour, yet Medlycott refuses to change his tactics.

"If I have four quality seamers I will use them, even though there is no way that they will be able to bowl 17 overs in an hour. The only way round this is to make sure we bowl teams out, which is what we always try to do.

"We try to attack teams with four slips, a gully and a short leg, whatever it takes to win the game. We are not trying to slow down the game deliberately, it's not in our interest.

"As far as I am concerned it is a poor rule and I have not found an umpire yet who has disagreed with me.

"If it means I have to restrict quality fast bowlers like Phil Sampson to six overs then the game's a farce."

Medlycott accepted some of the blame for to failing finish Wimbledon off, admitting that he batted too patiently on his way to 110, which forced Sutton to use their full complement of 66 overs in notching 278-6.

Wimbledon then produced a commendable rearguard effort to bat out their 56 overs to finish on 216-8.

Benjamin Craft was the pick of their batsmen, with a fighting 59. Sampson and off-spinner Bilal Butt finished with figures of 4-60 and 4-81 for Sutton.

Weybridge host Sutton on Saturday, while Wimbledon visit defending champions Reigate Priory.