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Saturday Third X1 Match Reports
Versus Esher (A) – Surrey Championship 1st July 2006
Esher 206 for 7 wickets declared (S.Heath 4-51, J.Mascarenhas 3 catches) in 51.5 overs Dulwich 135 for 7 wickets (P.Smith 36, A.Sykes 33) in 49 overs Result: Losing Draw
England in World Cup quarter final football action last Saturday and Esher on a roasting lunchtime was the destination as we arrived at the mid-way point of the cricket season. Together, the much changed 3rd XI (first appearances of the season for Dan Russell, Pratish Dayalji and wicket-keeper Ed Lockett) and the national soccer side (possible last appearance of the season for all 23 of them) were looking for a double-dose of Saturday afternoon victories.
The home side elected to bat first on a good track offering some pace and bounce. Bruce beat the bat on numerous occasions with the new ball with no luck; his opening partner this week was left arm seamer Luke Howard, whose demon slower delivery during his twelve over spell was reminiscent of 1970s Kent & England star Derek Underwood, aka Deadly. Deadly Howard’s stamina and skill in the heat was admirable and produced two catching chances, but sadly he ended up unrewarded. Although no wickets were falling, Esher’s scoring was being contained. This was particularly positive, as for the early period of the game we were with only ten players, so when the eleventh player eventually arrived after having toured half of South London, we were in a position to put greater pressure on the batsmen. Langy, bowling at first change, bowled as tightly as he had all season but on this occasion without any luck. The spinners were soon on therefore, and although Trini also picked up no wickets, operating from the other end with the score on 117, Ted finally bowled one of the Esher openers who had been riding his luck through much of his innings. When pitching in the right areas, the turn and bounce made him very difficult to play and the number three batsman having waited so long to make an appearance soon departed for a duck. Poor old Ed Lockett behind the stumps, having been working for the whole season on the slow and low wickets that most of us are used to, didn’t know what had suddenly hit him!
Esher attacked and the run rate started to increase; the loss of hardness on the ball showed what a good batting wicket this was. Dulwich displayed good skills in the field at times – particular mention should be made of debutant Dan Russell whose enthusiasm and energy was something all should have noted – and Lockett’s persistence with the keeper’s gloves was soon rewarded with the stumping of the opposition captain to bring Ted his third wicket; this was soon followed by his fourth. An excellent second spell by Bruce brought him two late wickets (including a third catch of the innings for Jose Maskers) in addition to a run out, and helped keep the score at declaration to a manageable 206 for 7.
After tea, it was unusual to see Ted taking the secondary role as Versace produced some cracking shots – perhaps he had finally found a track resembling those he was brought up on in his native South Africa? However, he succumbed for 36 (with the score on 46) and one brought two as Ted nibbled outside the off stump in the following over.
Captain and vice-captain found themselves at the crease together for the first time since early May, and a nice partnership seemed to be developing until an untimely edge to slip brought about the downfall of Jose. With the fourth and fifth wickets quickly coming afterwards the pressure was on BP to take the lead. The vice captain continued to gain confidence as he stayed longer at the crease, but his departure for 33 (at 107 for six) meant that Dulwich were now fighting to save the game.
However, cometh the hour, cometh the debutants; the solid defence of Lockett and Russell ensured that there was no outright win for Esher. Particularly on a day when the underachieving England football team were once again prematurely dumped out of the World Cup, it was important we came away from this game with something other than a defeat.
THIS WEEK’S STAR CAST: Jeff ‘Jose Maskers’ Mascarenhas Alistair ‘BP’ Sykes Luke ‘Deadly’ Howard David ‘Trini’ Begg Keith ‘Langy’ Dawkins Stephen ‘Ted’ Heath Paul ’Versace’ Smith Adam ‘Bruce’ Willis
Champagne moment: Seeing the opposition’s young female scorer sharing her ipod all afternoon with our own Steffan Begg. Steffan’s enthusiasm to be in the scorebox on Saturday could not have been bettered by John Lewis himself!
Pickled egg moment: Versace’s arrival time. (Would it have been quicker to get to Cape Town?) I almost caused the destruction by the rest of the team of his in-car Tom-Tom, and resulted in comparisons being drawn between him and a certain Mark Thatcher – a fellow South African in exile whose navigational skills have often been called into question.
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