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Match ReportsDulwich 3rd XI v Old Whitgiftians 3rd XI (home) 23 August 2003 Old Whitgiftians 96 in 19.4 overs (I.Marshall 4 for 38) Dulwich secured promotion to the Premier League in 2004 with a comprehensive and slightly surreal victory over Old Whitgiftians. With most of the side recovering from a hard tour to South Wales, and with skipper Stewart Harmer having had a particularly hectic time (according to the photographic evidence), it was just as well he won the toss and asked Roham Karat and Ian Marshall to open the bowling, as they were still fresh and unsullied. Karat's first over drew the batsman into edging the ball low between first and second slip. Swallow-like, Tony Cable (another who'd missed the tour) pounced to catch it; his first slip partner David Woods (who had toured) was still on the way down a few moments later, so it was probably just as well. Old Whitgiftians decided the game was a Twenty20 fixture, and Nos 3 & 4 decided to swing at everything Marshall bowled, some of which was straight and full and hit the stumps, some of which disappeared. In 10 overs they were 33 for 5, and Marshall had four wickets. Karat could have had a couple by then, but when a shot was lobbed up to mid-off it found tour victim Harmer unable to bring hand to ball in the conventional style. Karat took the hint and started hitting the stumps instead. At 43 for 7 in 13 overs, with the last pair in, the game was heading for a very early end, but captain Chin swung his bat to some effect. He hit a skier in the direction of Harmer, and the ball was in the air for long enough for most of the team to lay odds on the ball or the man. The favourite won comfortably, as both ball and man ended up on the floor. In the end, it took the (very) slow medium of tourist Jason Speer to bring the innings to a close on 96. Job done, he went to sleep. Cable was an early victim in Dulwich's reply, but Sam Taylor came in and made 42 positive runs (58 balls) in a partnership of 63 that took Dulwich to 74 for 2. Meanwhile tourist Peter Rice was setting a new record for slow scoring, reaching four (all singles) in his first 50 balls, having clearly used up all his energy in the nightclubs and golf courses of Wales. For the tourists struggling to stay awake, it wasn't perhaps the ideal tonic. In the end, he accelerated to finish on an undefeated nine (83 balls) to enable him and the rest of the team to add some gin to that tonic and celebrate the fact that Dulwich 3rd XI were back in the top division for the first time in a decade after their comprehensive seven-wicket victory. Next week Dulwich visit bottom-placed Sanderstead in the last game of the season. Dulwich are just one point behind Old Wimbledonians, who have to play Leatherhead, 12th, who managed to trounce Cheam last week and so could give the OWs a real contest and enable Dulwich to pip their rivals to the title.
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