Cricket: Dulwich earn nail-biting win over Valley End

Dulwich overcame a poor start in both innings to secure a nailbiting victory by two runs at Valley End and record their first victory of the season in Division 1 of the Surrey Championship, writes John Lewis.

Dulwich chose to bat but had a disastrous start as skipper Chris Purshouse, James Schofield and Ahmed Khan were all dismissed without scoring, to leave them reeling on 9-3 after five overs.

Ollie Steele had scored all of those runs and had advanced to 28, off 35 balls, before being bowled with the score on 35. Frankie Brown was caught behind for six to make it 45-5, but Robbie Keaton, in his first match of the season, played a bright knock of 17, off 23 balls, before also being bowled.

Jon Lodwick joined South African overseas player Dan Crowley with the score on 62-6 in the 18th over, and together they turned the innings round in a partnership of 74 in 13 overs for the seventh wicket.

Crowley led the way in his best innings for the club to date, making 44 off 49 balls before being caught with the score on 136. Michael Harms went for a single, but Simon Harwood helped Lodwick take the score to 149 before the latter fell for 34, off 54 balls.

Harwood was joined by Salaar Waqar, in the unaccustomed position of number 11, and they put on a crucial 17 for the last wicket before Waqar fell for six, leaving Harwood undefeated on seven. Dulwich were all out for 166 after 41.4 overs.

Harwood took the first wicket in his second over, but this was not enough to stop the Valley End batsmen racing away, taking full advantage of the fielding restrictions.

Jayden Clark scored 28 of the first 35 runs before falling to Harwood, and Ed Young continued the onslaught. The opening bowlers came off after conceding 76 runs in just nine overs as Purshouse turned to his spinners.

Khan had Young lbw with his first ball for 29, off just 17 balls. Josh Dodd continued the attack against Khan and Brown, who conceded 20 runs and 17 runs respectively off their first two overs, but the two spinners then started to take control.

Brown’s dismissal of Dodd (32) with the score on 124 in the 17th over, brought about an abrupt change in the course of the innings.

Valley End lost six wickets in seven overs for just 17 runs, in which they had also registered three consecutive ducks, to be reduced to 141-9.

The last wicket pair of Steve Wellman and Elliott Coggins came together with 26 runs still needed.

The score had reached 163 when Purshouse turned to opening bowler Crowley as Wellman was bowled by the sixth to give Dulwich victory.

The win lifts Dulwich to eighth in the standings, level with Wimbledonians.

This weekend the format switches to “time” games, which in this division are played over a minimum of 120 overs.

Dulwich travel to Guildford, who are third.