DULWICH 263-9 (66) drew with BEDDINGTON 222-9 (58)
Dulwich had the better of their AJ Fordham Surrey Championship Division 1 match against Beddington, but were unable to force a victory and had to settle for a winning draw.
Dulwich chose to bat, and got off to a good start as Ollie Steele and James Schofield put on 46 in 13.4 overs for the first wicket. Schofield’s dismissal for 25, off 38 balls, was quickly followed by skipper Chris Purshouse for 2. Frankie Brown joined Steele, but they found it hard to force the pace against accurate bowling and keen fielding. They had taken their third wicket partnership to 76 in 28 overs when Brown fell for 31, having faced 97 balls. Some acceleration was now required, and this was delivered by Ahmed Khan, who made 33 off 48 balls in adding 57 in 14 overs for the fourth wicket with Steele. Khan’s dismissal was followed in the next over by that of Steele for 87, off 151 balls, having narrowly failed to complete a second century in three weeks. Dan Crowley fell in the same over for 4, Michael Harms was run out for a single in the next over, and Jon Lodwick went for 2 as Dulwich lost five wickets in six overs to go from 181-3 to 200-8.
Chris Harwood thus joined his brother Simon with 4.4 overs remaining, and together they launched an onslaught which saw 61 runs come off the next 26 balls until Simon fell off the penultimate ball of the innings, having struck 42 off 31 balls. Alex Gledhill hit the last ball for 2 to close the innings at 263-9 off the permitted 66 overs, leaving Chris Harwood undefeated with 21 off just nine balls.
Beddington had got through their overs quickly, and thus left themselves with 58 overs to get the runs. They got off to a rapid start as openers Tor Burrowes and Jack Ballard raced to 50 off the first eight overs, bowled by Simon Harwood and Lodwick. The opening bowlers gave way to Brown and Chris Harwood, and it was Brown who made the breakthrough, having Ballard caught behind by Harms for 33, off just 26 balls. The Harwood brothers shared the next two wickets, and Beddington went into tea at 96-3 after 18 overs.
After the interval Brown and Khan settled into a long spell in tandem that saw Burrowes and Karl Moolman take just 45 runs off the next 15.3 overs before Khan took the vital wicket of Burrowes for 71 off 109 balls. Chris Harwood returned to take the fifth wicket with the score on 166, but Moolman and Jack Green advanced to 203 in the 51st over when the latter fell to Crowley for 14. Chris Harwood returned once again to remove Moolman for 68, off 115 balls, to make it 211-7 after 53.1 overs.
Dulwich therefore had 4.5 overs to get the last three wickets. Brown bowled two of those overs and took a wicket in each of them, both leg before, but Dulwich were unable to separate the last wicket pair and the innings closed on 222-9. Brown bowled 18 overs to finish with 3-35, while Chris Harwood had 3-31 off nine.
Dulwich therefore secured the winning draw with the maximum possible bonus points, giving them 14 points from the match. This lifts them into ninth place, just seven points behind Beddington. Next week Dulwich have a difficult match when they make the long journey to face leaders Cranleigh.