Denmark were unable to topple the MCC in today's first encounter out of two. On Monday the MCC defeated Denmark's Under 19s by 132 runs in a high scoring affair and Tuesday saw the MCC beat a Glostrup Combined XI by the meagre margin of 7 runs ina Twenty/20 encounter. So the MCC are still unbeaten before tomorrows final match against Denmark

It was a cooler Svanholm Park today than one has seen during the last month. Shortage of rain meant the grass was more scarce and the pitch was bare for grass and looked interesting for the spinners. Denmark were without Frederik Klokker who is tied up in Derbyshire and spinner Bashir Shah who didn't make it back from Pakistan.

The MCC won the toss and decided to bat and ran into trouble immediately when Rao was trapped lbw first ball by Henrik Hansen. The English found the going hard as the ball swung around while the Danes gave away too many wides. However the Danes soon struck again as Vigar and Holman fell at 37. Captain D J Bicknell enteresd the scene and played the captain's innings holding the side together. His partners didn't stay all that long as the Danes regularly took wickets, but they could not remove the English captain, as he often found the boundary But at 157 for 7 it looked like the MCC wouldn't make 200 but Bicknell found a new partner in Wright who had scored a century against the under 19's. Wright counter attacked with 3 sixes and the MCC went past 200. Wright was eventually caught on the boundary and Bicknell last over surge got the MCC to 227 after 50 overs leaving Bickenll on 93 not out.

The Danes got off to a bright start with Overgaard and Micael Pedersersen but at 28 Cece removed both Pedersen brothers. It was Soren Vestergaard that lifted the Danes back on track with an enterprising innings that was ended prematurly to a dubious lbw decision at 96. The MCC had turned with success to using spinners and especially Bicknell's left arm spin created problems for the Danes as the middle order collapsed. Bicknell took 4 wickets cheaply as Denmark were left reeling at 146 for 8. The tail didn't surrender as expected as Bobby Chawla and Henrik Hansen put on 43 for the last wicket. The innings, however, ended in the most distressing fashion as Henrik Hansen collapsed going for a second run as something gave way in his foot. Sportingly as they are the MCC didn't run Henrik out but he was unable to continue and the innings ended at 183 - 44 runs short.

Considering the Danes are fighting to find fitness they put up a good game as such as only Bicknell really got in their way with both bat and ball. Comments however about several decisions were directed towards the MCC umpire who funnily enough speaks Danish. Henrik Hansen will be out for tomorrow's rematch as the Danes look to make a big dent in the MCC armour