Farnham 169 all out (60.3 overs) lost to Dulwich 171-9 (58.4 overs) by one wicket
Dulwich climbed into the fourth place of the Premier Division of the Surrey Championship when their last wicket pair knocked off the thirteen runs needed to secure a tense one wicket victory over third placed Farnham.
Farnham chose to bat but lost their first wicket in the third over when Tom Cairns was caught in the slips off paceman Dave Burton. Ray Haycock and Guy Hicks found scoring difficult against Burton and Arshad Iftikhar reaching 43 in the nineteenth over when Burton struck again to remove Hicks – caught behind for 19. Haycock somehow survived Burton’s opening spell. Without ever looking confident, he eventually fell to left arm spinner Vikram Banerjee for 25 in the twenty fourth over. Banerjee, a Cambridge blue this season, worked his way through the rest of the Farnham batting, taking 6-45 in a superb unbroken spell of 20 overs. Vikram has been a Surrey trialist this season and with form like this, he will be back at the Oval soon!
Gary Clapham was top scorer with 26 with Richard Norman and Mark- Anthony Eysele both making 25as Farnham were dismissed for 169 after sixty overs. Burton took 2-47 off nineteen overs whilst Iftikhar and Graeme Hough took a wicket apiece.
Dulwich’s reply also got off to a disappointing start as Anil Mahey, Richard Farrow and Jimmy Daley were all back in the pavilion in the first nine overs. The Farnham opening attack of Richie Banham and the experienced Peter Dickinson had conceded only 29 when Dai Williams and Phil Chandler came together. The Dulwich pair added 35 taking the score to 64 in the twenty first over when Williams fell to Caines for 9. Skipper Mark Kelly joined Chandler in a stand of 40 for the fifth wicket before Kelly fell to his Farnham counterpart for 18. Chandler and Burton then added 39 for the sixth wicket and seemed to be steering Dulwich to a second successive victory at home.
The return of Dickinson added a few twists and turns to the match as he removed Burton for 19 and Hough for no score. Banerjee joined Chandler, the City banker and together they took the score to 156 when Chandler ran himself out going for a suicidal second run. His 64 was comfortably the highest score of the match with no other player making more than 26. Banerjee was the ninth wicket to fall – his twelve runs coming off just 8 balls as he was brilliantly caught by Cairns on the boundary.
Banerjee had looked as if he would win the game himself. Instead the thirteen run deficit was left to Ryan Birbeck, the competitive young keeper from the North East and Iftikhar the experienced opening bowler from the East. In a flurry of swings and fours, Dulwich romped home as Iftikhar hit two boundaries and Birbeck the winning four. A close game saw Dulwich win by one wicket with eight balls of the game remaining. Dickinson finished with 3-33 and off spinner Tom Hicks waving conceded only 17 runs off his first fifteen overs finished with 2-47 off twenty two overs.
Dulwich’s win means that with four games to go they are in fourth place in a very open league, which sees tight games and unpredictable results most weeks. Next week Dulwich visit Weybridge who will be looking for a win to keep them out of the relegation dog fight in the Premier League of the Shepherd Neame sponsored Surrey Championship.
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