CHIPSTEAD COULSDON & WALCOUNTIANS 177-9 (55) drew with DULWICH 274-8 dec (65)
Dulwich travelled to Chipstead Coulsdon & Walcountians, and for the second time in three weeks they had much the better of their match in Division 1 of the AJ Fordham Surrey Championship, but were unable to separate the last pair and had to settle for a winning draw.
Dulwich elected to bat and got off to a good start as Ollie Steele and James Schofield put on 78 for the first wicket in 22.2 overs. Schofield went for 28 off 62 balls and Frankie Brown 17 off 21, while Steele advanced to his third half-century in five weeks. He was the third to go with the score on 125 in the 35th over, having set up the innings nicely with 66 off 112 balls. Skipper Chris Purshouse and 17 year old Veer Patel, playing his first league match of the season, added a further 31 in eight overs when Purshouse fell for 25, off 33 balls, and Dan Crowley followed in the same over without scoring.
With five wickets down and only 156 runs on the board Dulwich looked in danger of falling short of a defendable total, but Simon Harwood, with 30 off 33 balls, helped Patel add 51 in nine overs for the sixth wicket, Robbie Keaton made 17 (off 22 balls) out of 22 in six overs for the seventh, and Jon Lodwick made 3 (off 10 balls) in a stand of 17 in four overs for the eighth. Chris Harwood, with 10 not out off ten balls, then joined Patel in adding 28 in 3.3 overs before a declaration on 274-8 after 65 overs, leaving Chipstead 55 overs to get the runs or bat out time. Patel had played a mature innings, increasing the tempo towards the end, in making 66 not out off 83 balls.
Six of the Dulwich wickets had fallen to spin, so it was no surprise that Brown was on as early as the eighth over. He then proceeded to bowl unchanged for the rest of the innings, to finish with 6-60 off 24 overs, his second haul of five or more wickets this season. Chipstead were still seemingly well placed at tea on 57-2 after 18 overs, but they lost wickets at regular intervals afterwards as three from Brown and two from Crowley (2-21 off seven) reduced them to 151-7 after 40 overs. Simon Harwood took the eighth wicket at 160 in the 43rd over and Brown got the ninth at 175 in the 48th. Dulwich therefore had 7.4 overs to get the last wicket. But the last pair held out successfully, with six maidens and only one scoring shot coming in those overs to finish on 177-9 after 55.
Dulwich once again took full bonus points and claimed 14 from the match. But this was not enough to stop them dropping back to bottom place as they were overtaken by Stoke D’Abernon who secured a surprise win over leaders Cranleigh. Nonetheless Dulwich are still only six points behind Valley End, who are eighth. Coincidentally Stoke provide Dulwich’s opponents next week in a crucial contest between the bottom two.