Draw at Grace Road, but Smith century elevates him to Hants all-time third place

One of the finest days weather wise for weeks, brought out the worst of this new format Frizzell County Championship at Grace Road, when Leicestershire and Hampshire played out a dull draw, but not before a vintage hundred by Robin Smith took him into third place on the All-Time Hampshire century list.

Hampshire started the day on the defensive, with a small lead and six wickets in hand, so it took skipper Smith and prodigy John Francis the whole two hour pre lunch session to save the day, and ensure a large enough margin to stave off the possibility of defeat.

Smith showing much of his vintage best, pulling and cutting with some verocity, particularly against two old adverseries in Devon Malcolm and Philip deFreitas. Francis playing his first championship match of the season, and his third overall was more circumspect, waiting for the bad ball and accumalating a career best 82. Smith was finally out for 104 smiting 18 fours in the process, and Francis who shared a 124 fifth wicket partnership with his skipper, had hit 13 fours when he fell to a slip catch off Malcolm.

Set 295 in a basic minimum of 36 overs, Leicestershire surprised the sparce Grace Road crowd by opening with deFreitas and Ward, but after flattering briefly, they realised their task was futile, and settled in to watching 8 Hampshire bowlers ply their trade, with Francis picking up a career best 1 wicket for one run, to add to his batting one.

Robin Smith completed his 49th first-class century for Hampshire, passing the illustrous Gordon Greenidge in the process to become the clubs third highest century maker.

The list now reads:

C.P.Mead           138
R.E.Marshall        60
R.A.Smith           49
C.G.Greenidge       48
C.L.Smith           41
B.A.Richards        38
G.Brown             37
V.P.Terry           37
J.Arnold            36