Sat 20th June - 1st XI v Sunbury

DULWICH 105 (28) lost to SUNBURY 197 (53.4) by 92 runs

Dulwich renewed combat with Sunbury in Division 1 of the M.Zaidi & Co. Surrey Cricket Championship, but they were unable to avenge last year’s thrashing as a batting collapse saw them go down to defeat by 92 runs.

Dulwich put their opponents in to bat on a hot and muggy day. They were delighted when Aussie overseas player Hugh Weibgen, who had scored centuries in both fixtures between the sides last year, was leg before to Tommy Clout in just the third over of the innings. Disciplined bowling by Clout, Joe Payne, Dan Empson and Adam Fowler-Watt, who took the second wicket with the score on 60, kept the scoring in check, and Sunbury went into lunch on 101-2 after 27 overs. After the interval Stuart van der Merwe and Ollie Pascall took their score to 146 in the 39^th over when Empson dismissed Pascall for 42.

Will O’Donnell now settled into a groove, dismissing van der Merwe for 59 with the score on 158. Lucas Parry joined the attack, and he and O’Donnell polished off the innings, aided by the run out of the Sunbury captain when the batsmen attempted a suicidal third run. O’Donnell took two more wickets to finish with 3-59 off 12.4 overs, while Parry had excellent figures of 3-11 off five. Sunbury had lost eight wickets for 51 runs, and the last six for just 22, to be all out for 197 in the 54^th over.

The Dulwich reply started badly when James Schofield seemed surprised to be given out caught behind off the third ball of the innings. Worse was to follow with O’Donnell being caught at second slip in the seventh over, and Henry Goodwin following in the same manner after a protracted discussion three balls later. All three wickets had fallen to George O’Connor, who had Jacob Rhodes caught behind in his next over to leave Dulwich reeling on 25-4.

Parry then launched an assault on O’Connor which saw him taken out of the attack, making 24 off 25 balls out of a partnership of 39 for the fifth wicket with skipper Ollie Steele. O’Connor returned to dismiss Chris Purshouse for 6 and remove Steele in his next over for 31 to make it 94-7. The other opening bowler Kevin Smith now returned to dismiss the last three batsmen in successive overs without scoring, leaving Fowler-Watt undefeated with 19 as the innings ended on 105. All ten wickets had fallen to catches. O’Connor finished with 6-62 off eleven overs and Smith 3-17 off ten.

Dulwich take just three points from this game and slip two places to seventh. Next week they have another home fixture when they entertain Malden Wanderers, who are currently second in the table.