An unexpected 84-run win at Allotment Road lifted Sarisbury out of the immediate three-down danger zone.
The result left P & S an ever-widening gap to close at the top in order to achieve a return to the Premier League in 2017.
Hampshire Over-50s captain Colin Day (68) and Melbourne-bound Toby Mitcheson (40) shared a century opening stand to provide the platform for Sarisbury’s 197-8.
Tom Farnsworth and Steve Clement peppered the boundary rope ten times as P & S raced to 47-0 in six overs.
But an astonishing collapse saw the visitors drop from 70-1 to 113 all out, with Chris Sanders (4-36), little Sam Hill (3-13) and Cameron Pye (3-4) creating the grand slide.
The demise of P & S strengthened the claims of Alton II and Purbrook to the top two places.
Both cashed in, Alton with a 48-run win over Burridge II, and Purbrook by a massive 325-run margin at Ellingham.
Alton’s ninth straight win came after they had posted 227 (Richard Anthony 66) and then bowled lowly Burridge out for 169, Portsmouth Grammar’s Ollie Wright making 47.
John Moller belted three sixes and 23 fours in a career best 155 as Purbrook piled up 380-6 at Pickett Post before Aaron Dean [pictured] blew away the Ellingham batting with a CD1 best 9-30.
He might have got all ten wickets had Ellingham mustered 11 players.
Ironically, the last HL cricketer to take nine wickets in an innings was also a Purbrook cricketer, Ian Limb, with 9-27 back in 1993.
The gap between Alton and Purbrook is 15 points - and P & S are effectively 23 behind that.
Hook & Newnham Basics moved to within four points of the city club after an extras strewn 80-run win at Fareham & Crofton.
Hook made 296-9 (Ben Alnutt 46/Jack Robson 42), but were concerned when left-handers Tom Kent (56) and Viraat Sahu (37) shared a 132-run start for the hosts.
Despite Hook’s generosity, Fareham couldn’t keep it up and were eventually dismissed for 216, with Rich Willcock (4-54) and teenage spinner Liam Doran (3-35) plotting their downfall.
In-form Steve Berryman scored an unbeaten 79 to guide St Cross Symondians III to a five-wicket win over Totton & Eling II, whose 233 included a half-century from one-time Calmore Sports all-rounder Dominic Newman (59).
Shrewton won a low scoring affair by nine runs at Albany Road, defending a modest 142 (Neerav Trivedi 4-23) and then reducing the Bishops to 82-8.
A late rally saw BW reach 133 (Dan Wheeler 28), but Shrewton pair Dan Pownall (4-34) and Jamie Mitchell (3-30) had long since done the damage.
Chasing a total of a 165, Ventnor II clinched a two-wicket win at Old Tauntonians & Romsey II.
The returning David Beven (4-31) made an immediate impact, and with Hugh Calloway and young Ben Attrill chipping in with two wickets apiece OTR were dismissed for 164.
Pierre Kriel (57) led the Ventnor response, but it was a ninth-wicket partnership of 32 which proved decisive, skipper Martin Blackman (21) and teenager Harry Ridley seeing Ventnor home.
An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 60 between Aidan Jansen and Ed Duckworth earned Andover II a vital win over New Milton, whose 178 included 97 from New Zealander Dave Wakefield, who had been dropped from the SPL side.
Harri Williams (32) made his farewells before returning to New Zealand.