Dulwich CC stay unbeaten in Surrey Championship Division Two after victory over Epsom

BY JOHN LEWIS

Dulwich maintained their 100 per cent record in Surrey Championship Division Two with an eight-wicket victory over Epsom on Saturday.

Dulwich put their opponents into bat and got off to an ideal start when skipper Jon Lodwick and Simon Harwood each took a wicket in his first over to remove both openers.

The score had advanced to 15-2 in the sixth over when the first rain shower drove the players from the field for 50 minutes, to reduce the match from 50 to 43 overs per side.

On the resumption the two opening bowlers each took another wicket and left-arm spinner Frankie Brown picked up the next three to reduce Epsom to 50-7 after 23 overs.

An eighth wicket partnership of 34 in 11.3 overs offered some resistance, but Harwood returned to break the stand, and Sam Ellison needed only nine balls to take the last two wickets and dismiss Epsom for 99 in the 39th over. Harwood took 3-16 off his nine overs to give him nine wickets in two matches for just 31 runs. Brown finished with 3-20 off his nine overs, while Lodwick had 2-19 off seven and Ellison 2-6 off 1.3.

Rain during the tea interval delayed the start of the second innings and reduced it to 30 overs, for which Duckworth and Lewis (via the PlayCricket app) gave a revised target of 80.

Paul Selvey-Clinton fell for a single, bringing in Brown to join Chris Purshouse. A further rain break in the 10th over with the score on 25-1 knocked off two more overs, and revised the D/L target to 75 off 28. Purshouse fell in the 19th over having faced 58 balls in making 37 out of the total of 51. Ollie Steele joined Brown, and the pair comfortably knocked off the runs with three overs to spare.

Dulwich have beaten both of the promoted sides in their first two games. This weekend they visit old rivals Bank of England, who are the only other club in the division to have won both their opening matches.