WALTON ON THAMES 108 (38.2) lost to DULWICH 177 (49.3) by 69 runs
Dulwich won a convincing victory by 69 runs at Walton on Thames to secure promotion from Division 2 of the AJ Fordham Surrey Championship.
The Dulwich innings revolved around a patient 62 off 136 balls by James Schofield, his second half century in three matches which equaled his score in the first. He came in with the total on 9 after the early dismissal of Ollie Steele, and took part in stands of 30 for the second wicket with Chris Purshouse, who made 15, 13 for the third with Frankie Brown, who scored 6, and 57 for the fourth with Veer Patel, who made 16. At 109-4 after 35.4 overs some acceleration was needed, and it was provided by Sam Ellison, who contributed 28 off 23 balls in a stand of 40 for the fifth wicket with Schofield in just seven overs. Former Surrey slow left armer Mark Bainbridge had completed his ten overs with the miserly figures of 2-11, but the other spinners had proved expensive and it took the return of opening bowler Matthew Nichols to remove Ellison, Schofield, and keeper Robbie Keaton to make it 158-7 after 44.2 overs. Skipper Jon Lodwick and Ahmed Khan lifted the score to 174 before the other opener Nicky Wilson took the last three wickets in four balls to finish with 4-29. Dulwich had lost their last six wickets for 28 runs to be all out for 177 with three balls of the innings to spare.
Eight of the Dulwich wickets had fallen to the seamers, but Lodwick and Assan Crawford-Khan could not emulate them as skipper Dan Roberts and Evan Beck posted 35 in the first ten overs. The picture changed when Brown joined the attack, as he dismissed Roberts with the last ball of his first over and Beck with the second ball of his next. Fellow left arm spinner Alex Gledhill then struck in his first over and followed up with another in his third. Brown came off after taking 2-4 off five overs and gave way to leg spinner Ahmed Khan, who became the third spinner to strike in his first over. Another wicket for Khan and two for Gledhill saw Walton reduced to 70-8 in the 28th over, with all eight having gone down in 16 overs for just 33 runs. Some spirited batting by Wilson and Ben Monk added another 20 before Wilson became Gledhill’s fifth victim, and Monk contributed all 18 runs put on by the last pair before falling to Brown for 26, the highest score of the innings. Walton were dismissed for 108, coincidentally the same score they had made in the first match between the sides. Gledhill bowled his ten overs straight through to finish with 5-21 and take his tally in the last two matches to 12 wickets for just 41 runs. Brown had 3-18 off 7.2 overs, while Khan took 2-22 off seven.
This victory, coupled with defeat for Bank of England at Oxted, ensures promotion for Dulwich with a game to spare. Their final game of the season is at home to Dorking, who defeated the other promotion contender Old Wimbledonians on Saturday, and are currently in fourth place.