DULWICH 211-8 (50)
lost to
SPENCER 213-5 (45.3)
by 5 wickets
Dulwich squandered an impressive start in their AJ Fordham Surrey Championship Division 1 match against Spencer, going down to defeat by five wickets. John Lewis reports
Dulwich were put in to bat, and their innings was very much a story of two halves.
Ollie Steele and skipper Chris Purshouse saw off the opening attack of Michael Snedden, son of former New Zealand quickie Martin, and Ollie Bocking.
Their successors bowled tidily without making a breakthrough as the score advanced to 127 without loss after 31 overs.
But everything changed when skipper Gus Grant brought himself on for the 32ndover. He removed both openers in his first over, having Steele leg before for 44, made off 95 balls, and Purshouse caught for 71, off 96.
Bocking returned to have James Schofield lbw in the next over. Ahmed Khan and Frankie Brown took the score to 141 before Brown fell to Bocking for 4, and Grant again took two wickets in the next over, removing Khan for 11 and Jon Lodwick next ball with the score on 146.
Dulwich had lost six wickets in seven overs for 19 runs. South African overseas player Daniel Crowley then enjoyed stands of 22 for the seventh wicket with Michael Harms, who made 8, and a further 22 for the eighth with Simon Harwood before falling for 28 off 29 balls.
Harwood, with 13 off 13 balls, and Salaar Waqar, with 10 off 11, then added an unbeaten 21 to take Dulwich to 211-8 at the end of their 50 overs.
Grant had taken the last two wickets to finish with 6-32 off his ten overs, while Bocking, with 2-43 off his ten, was the only other wicket taker.
Will De Cani and Toby Pratt started the Spencer reply steadily, and had reached 27 in the seventh over when Harwood had De Cani caught behind by keeper Harms for 14.
Pratt and Lloyd Paternott had advanced the score to 62 in the 18th over when Khan had Paternott caught on the boundary, also for 14.
This brought in Will Harris to join Pratt, and together they resisted seven bowlers while adding 98 in 18 overs for the third wicket.
Both fell in successive overs. Harris was the first to go, skying a catch to the keeper off Crowley having made 44 off 64 balls, and Pratt fell to a stunning one-handed catch by Brown off Harwood for 69 off 101 balls.
With 50 runs still needed and two new batsmen at the crease Dulwich were still in with a chance, but the only other wicket to fall came through a direct hit by Brown with the score on 179.
The sixth wicket pair saw their side home with 4.3 overs to spare. Harwood was the best of the Dulwich bowlers, finishing with 2-28 off his ten overs.
For the third week running Dulwich have taken four points from the match and now stand in ninth place. Next week they travel to Valley End who have won two of their three matches and are currently fourth.
