Royal-Thomian ends in nerve-tingling draw in 1933

by A. C. de Silva

ROYAL-THOMIAN 1933: It was very close indeed! S. Thomas' who had to get 98 runs for victory in 85 minutes lost early wickets and were 91 for 9 wickets at close of play in the 1933 Royal-Thomian encounter at the old SSC grounds. Royal needed that one wicket and S. Thomas' needed just 7 runs for victory.

Two bowlers - F. W. E. Porritt (5 for 27) and T. B. Herat (4 for 22) were responsible for Royal's good showing as the Thomians had quite an easy task of making the runs to gain a win. Set a target of 98 runs for victory in the second innings, the Thomians were going smoothly with their score at 58 for no wickets which disaster struck them.

From 58 for no wickets S. Thomas' slid to 72 for 7 wickets and finally the last pair - Donald Fairweather who came in at No. 5 and last man S. Anthonisz held out to force a draw with the total at 91 for 9 wickets.

For Royal, it was Porritt and Herat who bowled a tidy length to force the Thomian batsmen into making errors and they just missed delivering the goods.Porritt, especially was seen in a dual role. He made 50 in the Royal first innings score of 182 and he also came off in bowling, taking 4 for 52 in the Thomian first innings total of 231.S. Thomas' skipper L. S. Gauder made a polished knock of 65 in 145 minutes and that helped them to a very encouraging first innings score of 231.

Gauder had an useful partner in E. J. de Kretser (28) and the pair put on 70 runs in the first innings for the 7th wicket.