Charterhouse       91
Dulwich College   92-4    Dulwich won by 6 wickets

There can be few games in which the toss of a coin can play such a crucial part as it does at times in cricket. Charterhouse travelled to Dulwich on a blustery Saturday 16 June full of anticipation of a tight match against very good opposition.

The home side won the toss, invited Charterhouse to bat and, within 45 minutes the match as a contest was as good as over. On a wicket which was almost unplayable and against some very disciplined bowling, Charterhouse found themselves 14-5 after 13 overs with all their star players back in the pavilion. Robbie Hughes and Tom Gordon-Martin played an outstanding rear-guard action for the next half an hour to muster another 29 runs, but Gordon-Martin fell to Alleyne’s quicker ball and When Rob Carnegie-Brown and Hughes were out in successive overs from the opener Stuff, Charterhouse were 63-8 and the game was up.

To their credit, Marwan Mohammad and Hector Don tried hard either side of lunch to restore a degree of respectability, but both departed with the score on 91 just as three figures looked a possibility. The fact that Charterhouse had managed to add 77 runs for just 3 wickets before those last two wickets fell, was an indication that the wicket was beginning to behave, and judicious use of the heavy roller between innings meant that Dulwich came out to bat on a much more benign track altogether.

Charterhouse gave their best and did beat the bat on a few occasions, but there was by no means the danger to life and limb endured (albeit briefly) by the Charterhouse top order. Don was the pick of the Charterhouse bowlers with two wickets including the prodigious Alleyne who has scored a century against Charterhouse in each of the last two seasons. On a relatively calm pitch, however, the meagre total was simply too small to defend and the hosts ran out easy winners.

It would be easy to blame fate for this defeat and there is no doubt that the home team had much the better of the conditions. It should be acknowledged, however, that they took full advantage of them by bowling with discipline and purpose and there is no reason to suppose that Charterhouse would have won had the contest taken place on a more level playing field. It is just a pity in this rain-wrecked season that fate played such a part in what might have been a very good contest.