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Saturday Third X1 Match Reports
Wimbledon away on 9th June 2007 in the Surrey Championship
Dulwich 151 all out Wimbledon 152 -4 Result: Lost by 6 wickets Saturday had a strange feel to it. It was muggy, sticky and decidedly disappointing. To get to any away fixture bang on 1pm is never the best preparation but for 3 of the side in the Rowntree sponsored Saloon this was to be their fate. Never ideal against a Wimbledon side top of the table and buoyant with confidence although the New Malden venue for the fixture was somewhat of a curveball to the naïve trio. The next thing that decided to conspire against Dulwich 3rds was skipper Mascarenhas’ unsuccessful call at the toss. Having called correctly all season, today his luck ran out. Wimbledon had no hesitation on inserting the visitors and Simms and Keach promptly bowled tidy probing spells. Opening bats, Saeed and Wheaton repelled the opening attack and were working hard until Wheaton fell to a catch in the gully. There was an element of doubt about the amount of bat if any that had been involved in the catch but he was on his way. Mascarenhas came and went after his opening dalliance the previous week and shortly after Saeed who had worked hard for his 21 was adjudged LBW and was heading back. Heath and Leather, numbers 4 and 5 lasted little time at the crease, both falling to poorly executed shots although Heath’s wicket produced what only can be described as a fluke of a catch at midwicket. Genuinely amazing but unbelievably lucky. With Dulwich rocking at 50 for 5, a rearguard action was required and this came in the form of Putt and Ciliers. Putt played some forceful shots as he drove well in the ‘V’ Whilst Ciliers wristily flicked to the leg side with power. A useful partnership ended too early though with Putt going for 19 and Ciliers shortly after for 22. Marillier fell a couple of overs later leaving the last wicket pair of Antipodean decent. Brett ‘Romeo’ Casson who denied he was suffering from jetlag or holiday blues and David Weston ‘Supermare’. It was then that Dulwich gave themselves a fighting chance of salvaging something from the game. The opening bowling duo set about the bowlers with gusto and a mixture of heavy blows and cheekily run singles put the Wimbledon side on the back foot and hushed what until then had been a cacophony of sledges from the South African keeper amongst others. A handy 49 run partnership between Casson and Weston brought up Dulwich’s 150 before Weston was bowled for 17, Casson finishing unbeaten on 24. It was time for the Australian pair to turn around and use what assistance there was in the pitch (and then was some) and make early inroads. This was not to be however and the Wimbledon openers, Rautenbach and Rackham came hard at Dulwich with Rackham especially punishing anything loose. One pulled six of the unfortunate Weston was probably the pick of his super knock of 57. Rautenbach lived a bit more dangerously on his way to 29 before he was quite brilliantly caught by Stephen Heath, the barrister snaffling him at first slip rather like his arguments in court, there was no way past him (if you get business from that Heath, I’ll take a cut).However Hussain had been on a triple pair and Muirhead came in to knock of the winning runs in the 25th over as Dulwich came very much 2nd in the one sided encounter. However, onwards and upwards and I’m sure that will be the one major blip for the season for the 3rds. If there was however, one lesson to be hand for the weekend for the author, it would be to not get in a car with a South African having arguments with his girlfriend who has never driven through Streatham at rush hour and only has Tom Putt and a dodgy Tom Tom for guidance. The map below shows how easy it should have been.
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