FPs were unable to close the gap on leaders St Ronald in a dull encounter at Rubislaw. Despite requiring only 191 for victory, St Ronald made no attempt to chase down the total preferring to bore the FP fielders into submission. There are often exciting draws such as the recent Academy encounter but if ever there was ammunition for those keen to ban the draw then this was it.
FPs 190 all out was indebted to a fine innings from John Eagles ably supported by Ben Frizell as FPs recovered from 60 for 5 to record 190. Late runs were also added down the order by Morrison and Muthu in a useful stand. FPs innings started well with openers Knudson and Lord scoring at a good rate but once Lord fell caught behind, wickets tumbled. Knudson was bowled in bizarre circumstances with the ball appearing to miss everything and rebound from the keepers pads. In the resulting confusion Knudson was eventually and seemingly incorrectly adjudged bowled.
FPs cause was assisted by some shambolic wicketkeeping as extras racked up over 30 and also some sharp running later in the innings helped get FPs up to a competitive total.
FPs opened the bowling with Lord and Millar and after some extremely tight bowling, St Ronald were well behind the rate. It took until the 18th over for Millar to find the breakthrough, bowling Mudie with a ball the batsman looked to be trying to leave. In the following over a heated exhange between Millar the non strking batsman and the umpire over a ridiculous wide threatened to boil over and with the batsman clearly losing his concentration, he was out to the next ball he faced from Moir turning a short ball to Millar at backward square.
Vai then proceeded to drop anchor as he made a lengthy 2 before being bowled by a great yorker from Stuart. Tomkins then picked up the wicket of the St Ronald wicketkeeper who was expertly caught behind by Muthu who was in superb form behind the stumps, conceding no byes.
Two balls later Camilerri was dropped at slip by Lord as FPs looked to try and force an unlikely victory. With Eagles into the attack, Camilerri seemed to be out stumped off Muthu’s pads but the umpire ruled otherwise. He survived for a third time when Morrison dropped a simple chance on the boundary and the match eneded in a draw as St Ronald limped up to 125.
