For the second week in a row FP’s 3rd XI were under strength with only 10 men available for the Grade 4 game against an even more under strength Stonehaven 2nd XI who had only eight players arrive at Harlaw, 5 adults and 3 schoolboys,
The survivors from the previous weeks match Ian Johnston, Jim Lee, Michael Blues and Rajaa Monnappillai were joined by James Lord, Aly McDonald, Agha Haider, John Thomson, Rahul Gopal and this weeks debutant David Blues.
The weather had been damp during the morning and for the first time this season, no howling wind blowing the bails away. The toss was won again by FP’s and elected to bat first. FP’s supplied a couple of players to fill in the gaps in the field.
Lee hit the second ball of the match for a boundary, but unfortunately hit the fourth ball in the air to the right of square leg where P. Hay dived to his right to bring off a brilliant catch, FP’s 4 – 1.
Lord looked in top form hitting some quick runs, and Monnappillai hit a good boundary before he missed a straight ball from J. Law and was bowled for 5 (1 x 4) FP’s 24 – 2.
The wet run up was hampering the bowlers, but new bowler Ram had no problem when he bowled M. Blues for 8, FP’s 65 – 3 off 11.3 overs. Lord continued to bat well, keeping out several accurate yorkers and hitting the bad balls. McDonald stroked some good cover drives and dispatching a full toss over the mid-wicket boundary for 6.
Lord was finally undone by a great delivery from the dangerous Ram Subramianian, bowled by another good yorker for 34 (4 x 4), FP’s 90 – 4 off 20.1 overs. Haider was soon out, bowled by P. Law for 4, FP’s 111 – 5.
There then followed another collapse with the last 5 wickets falling for 9 runs, including McDonald who was out LBW for 23 (1 x 6, 2 x 4), FP’s all out 119.
Wicket takers for Stonehaven A. Wilson 2 – 1- -2 – 3, Ram 6 – 1 – 16 – 2, P. Law 6 – 3 – 17 – 2, J. Law 4 – 0 – 27 – 2.
FP’s opened the bowling with Gopal from the pavilion end and he took a wicket in his second over thanks to a juggling catch at slip by McDonald who nabbed the catch at the fourth attempt.
The scoring was slow thanks to good bowling by Gopal and Thomson. P. Hay hit some good shots but Thomson finally got his deserved wicket bowling Hay for 10 (1 x 4), Stonehaven 30 – 2 off 13.4 overs.
FP’s looked to be on top by taking 2 more wickets with Haider bowling J.Law for 0 and Monnappallai also bowling A. Wilson for a duck. But a great stand by Ram and N. Grundy aided by a steady stream of wides raised the Stonehaven total to 92 before M. Blues had Grundy LBW for 8.
Ram had batted very sensibly waiting for the bad ball to hit, but also had been given a couple of lives as catches were missed. David Blues bowled well and deserved to take the crucial wicket of Ram, LBW for 48 (1 x 6, 5 x 4), Stonehaven 116 – 6 requiring 3 runs to win, FP’s requiring to take only one wicket. Young H. Wilson showed a good straight bat to deny the FP’s bowling until D. Long Snr hit the winning runs with a straight drive to the boundary, Stonehaven 123 – 6 off 35 overs.
A disappointing result for FP’s in a match they really should have won. Only two FP’s batsmen displayed the required discipline to score runs. All the FP’s bowlers bowled some great balls, but the wides total was 44, far too many in a low scoring game. And there were a few catches which should have been taken. Apart from that…
Stonehaven deserved their win and were rightly delighted with the result. The game was played in a good friendly atmosphere and both teams supplied the opposition with fielders to make up the numbers and gave LBW’s to key batsmen.
FP’s Man of the Match – James Lord, top scorer and fielded well
Champagne Moment – Aly McDonald’s slo mo juggle
