Cricket: Dulwich stay top of table as Alex Gledhill’s bowling display key to victory over Chessington

A remarkable spell of bowling by Alex Gledhill enabled Dulwich to defeat Chessington by 54 runs and retain top spot in Surrey Championship Division Two of the AJ Fordham Surrey Championship.

Old Wimbledonians and Bank of England are still in hot pursuit with two matches remaining as the format switches to 50 overs.

Dulwich were put in to bat and lost openers Ollie Steele and acting skipper Chris Purshouse in the first seven overs.

James Schofield and Frankie Brown came together with the score on 21-2, and repeated their partnership of last week, this time adding 41 in 15 overs for the third wicket.

But seamer Luke Barnard and left-arm spinner Conor McElligott had kept them under restraint, and Schofield’s dismissal, having made 26 off 50 balls, was quickly followed by Veer Patel and Matt Marfani. Ahmed Khan, promoted to number seven after last week’s heroics, was run out, and Brown became the seventh wicket having made 31 off 98 balls. Nick Gunning was the eighth man out with the score on 89, exactly the same score on which the eighth wicket had fallen last week. Six wickets had gone down in 16 overs for just 27 runs.

This time it was 16-year-old keeper Robbie Keaton, playing his first match for the first team this season, and Assan Crawford-Khan who provided the rescue act. They saw out the remaining overs by McElligott and skipper Barnard, who both bowled their permitted 14 overs straight through to take 4-38 and 1-21 respectively. They then made hay against some undistinguished bowling by their replacements. The stand had reached 65 off 15 overs when the light drizzle that had persisted for most of the innings turned to heavy rain and brought about a declaration on 154-8 after 53 overs. Keaton finished on 36, off 57 balls, and Crawford-Khan 28 off 39.

The rain stopped during the interval, leaving Chessington with 47 overs to get the runs.

Crawford-Khan and Gunning opened the bowling and took a wicket apiece to reduce their opponents to 27-2 after 10.1 overs.

Khan and Brown soon replaced them, but although Brown bowled a miserly spell of nine overs for 16 runs they were unable to achieve a breakthrough as the third wicket pair added 27 in 14 overs. Purshouse turned to Gledhill, who took the next four wickets in six overs for just six runs. Khan returned to take the seventh wicket with the score on 82.

Meanwhile some imaginative hitting by James Woolman, who struck three sixes in making 29 off 38 balls, had enlivened proceedings, and he had lifted the score to 98 when he was bowled by Gledhill. Numbers ten and eleven ignored their captain’s orders to defend and were both bowled swinging across the line to give Gledhill his final two wickets. He had bowled 9.2 overs to take seven wickets for just 20 runs.

Chessington had lost their last eight wickets for 46 runs to be all out for exactly 100 with 5.4 overs to spare.

Dulwich travel to Walton on Thames, who are seventh, on Saturday.