SPENCER 228-6 (56.2) beat DULWICH 224 (61.2) by 4 wickets
Dulwich could not sustain an impressive start in their AJ Fordham Surrey Championship Division 1 match at Spencer, going down to defeat by four wickets.
Dulwich elected to bat and got off to a flying start as Ollie Steele and James Schofield put 50 on the board in just eight overs. But the spin of skipper Gus Grant slowed the rate and they had reached 66 in the 13th over when Steele fell to the pace of Michael Snedden for 31, off 35 balls. Snedden gave way to 16 year old slow left armer Max Hunt and the runs dried up completely. Frankie Brown took 40 balls to score 10, and Schofield, having needed just 67 balls to complete his third fifty of the season, took another 31 to score his next ten runs before being dismissed for 60 off 98. Veer Patel fell without scoring to the third spinner, Freddie Horler, on the stroke of lunch, which they took at 120-4 after 33.4 overs.
The rest of the innings was held together by skipper Chris Purshouse, who reached his third half-century of the campaign, and the second against these opponents, while wickets tumbled at the other end. On paper Dulwich had a strong lower order, but none of the last six scored more than 13. Grant rotated his three spinners for the rest of the innings, and they each finished with three wickets. Dulwich were dismissed for 224 in the 62nd over, leaving Spencer 60 overs to get the runs. Purshouse was the last man out, having made 66 off 91 balls.
By contrast, the Spencer innings started slowly against tight bowling by Simon Harwood and Dan Crowley, with both openers falling to Harwood to make it 34-2 in the 13th over. The fifty did not come up until the 18th, but the Dulwich spinners were not allowed to dominate as their opponents had. Hugo Darby and Will Harris had added 72 in 15.3 overs for the third wicket when Crowley returned to dismiss Darby for 37 off 44 balls. Harris was joined by Tim Young to add 77 in 17.3 overs for the fourth wicket. Ahmed Khan dismissed Young for 35, off 53 balls, and Crowley dismissed Horler for 7 to make it 191-5, but the score had progressed to 213 before Khan took the sixth wicket, dismissing Harris for 89, off 128 balls. Spencer reached their target with 3.4 overs to spare. Crowley was once again the pick of the bowlers with 2-47 off 16 overs, while Khan took 2-73 off 16 and Harwood 2-42 off ten.
Dulwich take just four points from this match and remain in ninth place, but the gap behind eighth place has widened to 23 points. Next week they have a home fixture against Valley End who are currently fifth. The first match between the sides gave Dulwich their only win to date, and they will be looking to replicate it in the return match.