Cricket: Dulwich beat Bank of England to move back to top of the table

BY JOHN LEWIS

Dulwich defeated Bank of England by three wickets in their top of the table clash in Division Two of the Surrey Championship to overtake their opponents and reclaim top spot.

Dulwich put their visitors in under overcast skies, and reaped early rewards as Hugo Peterson took the first wicket in his second over and two more in his third, with all three batsmen dismissed without scoring.

Ed Jones and acting captain Patrick Tice lifted the score to 26 before Peterson dismissed Jones for 20, and skipper Jon Lodwick bowled his opposite number in the next over for three. The opening bowlers gave way to Nick Gunning and Ahmed Khan, who each took a wicket to reduce Bank to 39-7 in the 20th over.

Enter Rory Sale, whose 53 had rescued Bank in the first match between the sides. He repeated the feat here, adding 33 with Henry Warne for the eighth wicket before Peterson returned to have Warne leg before for seven and follow up with another wicket in his next over. Paul Metcalfe joined Sale and they added 41 for the last wicket, easily the highest stand of the innings, before Khan bowled Sale for 51, made off 85 balls.

Bank were dismissed for 113 in the 47th over, leaving Metcalfe undefeated with 12. The last three wickets, which had more than doubled the score in the first match, had nearly trebled it in this one. Peterson finished with the remarkable figures of 6-20 off his permitted 14 overs, while Khan had 2-15 off 6.2, Lodwick 1-38 off 11, and Gunning 1-15 off 4.

Warne’s reaction to his dismissal had resulted in the rare award of penalty runs to the fielding side, so Dulwich began their innings with five runs already on the board.

It started in similar fashion to their opponents as Metcalfe dismissed Ollie Steele and Veer Patel in his second and third overs, both without scoring. But there the similarity ended, as Chris Purshouse and Frankie Brown batted circumspectly at first, but gradually increased the tempo to add 56 for the third wicket in 21.4 overs.

Inevitably it was Sale who broke the stand, having Purshouse caught off the last ball of the 26th over for 45, off 74 balls, with the score on 67. Brown fell to Henry Goodwin in the next over, having faced 69 balls in scoring 17.

A spirited 16 off 24 balls by Sam Ellison lifted the scoring rate, but he and Matt Marfani both fell to Sale to make it 91-6 in the 34th over. Lodwick and Gunning set themselves to see out the spinners, and almost succeeded until Gunning fell to Sale’s final ball, having scored 10 off 30 balls, with the score on 105. Sale finished with 4-39 off his 14 overs, while Goodwin had taken 1-24 off his 14.

With the spinners bowled out Metcalfe was recalled, but his pace provided easy fodder for Lodwick who smashed 10 runs off the next three balls to take his score to 11 (off 25 balls), and secure a three-wicket victory.

Dulwich gained revenge for their defeat by these opponents in their first encounter. They are just five points clear of Old Wimbledonians, who also won on Saturday. Dulwich visit Worcester Park, who are currently in ninth place and will be desperate for a win to lift them out of the relegation zone, this weekend.