Sat 25th July - 1st XI v Beddington

BEDDINGTON 60 (25.3) lost to DULWICH 277-8 dec (65) by 217 runs

Dulwich dominated their Division 1 match in the M.Zaidi & Co Surrey Cricket Championship at Beddington to beat the bottom club by an emphatic margin of 217 runs.

Dulwich elected to bat and got off to an excellent start as Peter Frettingham and Jacob Rhodes posted the first half century opening stand of the season. The score had reached 53 in the 14^th over when Frettingham was surprised to be given out caught at slip for 23, off 33 balls. Will O’Donnell joined Rhodes to add 46 in 15 overs for the second wicket before Rhodes fell, having faced 94 balls for 37. This brought together O’Donnell and skipper Ollie Steele, who had put on 243 for the third wicket in the first match between the sides. They added another century stand here, putting on 103 in 24 overs before Steele was out for 38, off 69 balls. O’Donnell seemed set for another century, and it was a surprise when he fell five runs later for 91, off 126 balls.

At 207-4 after 55 overs Dulwich needed quick runs to set up a declaration. Tommy Wright and Lucas Parry obliged with 38 in five overs before Wright fell for 16, off 19 balls. Wright’s dismissal was the first of four wickets to go down in consecutive overs for seven runs as the later batsmen tried to push the score along. Patrick George joined Parry and sensibly gave him as much of the strike as he could. The pair had added 25 in four overs when Steele declared shortly after Parry had reached his maiden half-century for the club, having scored 52 off 37 balls. Veteran seamer Tom Bevan had started with 19 consecutive overs, interrupted only by lunch, and returned to bowl six more overs at the end and finish with 4-90 off 25. The declaration came at 277-8 after 65 overs, leaving Beddington 55 overs to score the runs or bat out for a draw. They managed neither!

The Dulwich innings had been interrupted by a succession of lost balls, with the result that only six overs remained before the tea interval. Tommy Clout and Dan Empson launched their usual challenging attack, and it was Empson who made the breakthrough in the last of these to send Beddington in to tea on 15-1 after 5.2. The pair resumed after the break and the score had reached 24 when Clout took two wickets in the ninth over. He and Empson then struck in each of the next four overs to reduce Beddington to 34-7. In a near repeat of last week’s performance, when they had taken six wickets for nine runs, they had now taken six for ten.

With the innings in tatters, Hamid Gondal now launched an attack on Empson that saw him replaced by O’Donnell, and the scoring rate dwindled to a trickle. Clout continued until the end and picked up his fifth wicket when he had Gondal caught behind for 16, the highest score of the innings, with the score on 55. Five more runs came before O’Donnell finished it off by taking the last two wickets with successive balls. Clout finished with 5-26 off 13 overs, his second five wicket haul of the campaign. Empson took 3-29 off eight, after conceding just 16 off his first seven. O’Donnell finished with 2-5 off 4.3, to go with three excellent catches at second slip. Beddington had been bundled out for just 60.

This victory lifts Dulwich one place to fourth in the table. Next week they have a much tougher challenge at home to Valley End, who won the first meeting between the sides by 30 runs and who have now moved up into second place.