DULWICH 189-4 (26.2) beat OLD HAMPTONIANS 188 (27.3) by 6 wickets
Dulwich rounded off their promotion season in Division 1 of the AJ Sports Surrey Championship with an emphatic six wicket victory over Old Hamptonians in a shortened match, thereby condemning their opponents to relegation.
Heavy rain in the previous two days had left wet patches on the square, delaying the start and reducing the match to 28 overs per side. Dulwich won the toss and put their opponents in to bat, but were startled to see the openers put on 90 in just 10.2 overs for the first wicket. Ben Chippendale led the way with 61 off just 31 balls, while his partner scored a more sedate 22 off 34. But Harrison Perry removed them both in his first over, to make it 95-2 after 11. The third wicket fell at 114, but Dylan Mares kept the score moving with 31 off 27 before being the fourth man out at 148 in the 18th over.
The Dulwich bowlers then worked their way through the lower order. The last seven wickets went down in ten overs for just 40 runs, and the last four in four overs for 14, to see Hamptonians dismissed in the last over for 188, well short of the total they would have needed to survive. Felix Watson-Smyth took two of the wickets, Will Jenkins and Harvey Booth got one each, and skipper Ollie Steele chipped in with a run out. But as so often the most successful bowler was Ahmed Khan, who took three wickets to raise his tally for the season to 48, the best in the Championship, at the impressive average of 10.90.
The Dulwich reply started badly when Perry was out in the second over, but Steele then joined Kaif Ramzan to add 69 in eight overs for the second wicket. Ramzan, promoted to take advantage of the powerplay, obliged with 35 off just 22 balls before being run out. Steele also batted aggressively, making 48 off 41 balls, before falling with the score on 98 in the 14th over. Jenkins now joined Sam Seecharan, who had started slowly with just four singles off his first 15 balls, but who now went into overdrive, racing to his half century off just 26 more. Jenkins kept him company in a stand for the fourth wicket of 87 in 11.3 overs before falling for 30 off 34 balls. The target was reached in the next over with 2.4 overs to spare. Seecharan remained unbeaten on 62, off 50 balls. Despite missing several games due to school commitments or injury he still finished the season with 359 runs at the remarkable average of 89.75 and a strike rate of 117.70.
Dulwich thus finish the season in second place, 16 points behind Spencer but a massive 51 ahead of Malden Wanderers in third place. Work now begins to prepare the side for the tougher challenges that they will face in the Premier Division next year.
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