Reed easily beat Preston in their final league game of the season, meaning they finished 7th out of the 20 teams in the Hertfordshire Division 2. Reed lost the toss and fielded on a hot late summer afternoon.

After Reed stuffed Bishop Stortford the previous week the away side were full of confidence and when Pete Tidey got 2 early break throughs to leave Preston at 24-2. Despite some lively bowling from Andy Young and tight bowling from Tidey, Hearne (52) and captain Catlin (19) looked in good form as they put on 63 for the 3rd wicket. When Tidey got Hearne LBW and the introduction of Michael Berks the game changed back to Reeds favour. Berks took 4 wickets in 3 overs in his spell of 10 overs 4-56. After Tidey was taken off after taking 4-40, spinner Chris Jackson took a wicket with his 1st ball after a sharp stumping from brother Simon bowling out Preston for 134.

The in form James Heslam and Will Clarke got Reed off to a solid start before Clarke was bowled for 12. Chris Jackson (13) gave Heslam support taking the Reed score to77 but with the solid Tom Fulk coming in 4 Reed knew they were in safe hands. Heslam hit 10 4s as he carried his bat for the 3rd consecutive game as he finished not out on 63, whilst Fulk was not out on 25, as Reed knocked off the 134 total for 2 wickets with over 30 overs to spare. Reed

Captain Simon Jackson was delighted with his team performance and their final position of 7th in the league. He said “after losing a couple of players over the winter, we have really united as a team and performed really well against some strong town sides such as Watford, Dunstable and Bishop Stortford 1st teams. James Heslam finishing with over 700 league runs was the star with the bat whilst Youngie, Tidey and Berksie have bowled superbly all season. Reed has really been a great club to play cricket at this season and the club has had a great buzz”