Reed travelled to Abbots Langley in confident mood after the victory the previous week against Northwood.

The toss was won by Reed and they sensibly decided to bat 1st in the extreme heat. The decision backfired with the Reed top four all being sent back to the pavilion with the score on a pitiful 23.

The early damage to the Reed innings was done by T. Mir (5-43) who took all 4 wickets in a devastating spell of pace bowling. Stuart Smith and Ray Kingshott then started the recovery operation and added 46 before Smith played a rash shot and fell for a valuable 28. This brought skipper Simon Jackson to the crease who with Kingshott kept the scoreboard ticking with regular singles occasionally unleashing the bad ball to the boundary. When Kingshott fell for 40 in the 37th over Reed were once again teetering on 112, and when a further 2 wickets fell without the total being added to Reed’s final prayers were being held. However what happened next was unimaginable,

Michael Berks came into bat in his 1st innings for over a year, but the time away seemed to have done wonders on his batting by playing a number of exquisite shots to all parts of the ground. Jackson supported Berks wonderfully and the pair added a new 9th wicket club partnership of 82 to leave Reed on 194 for 9 off their 53 overs. The Abbots Langley reply got of to an extremely slow start with Reeds opening bowlers Richard Jerome (0-17 of 14 overs) and Pete Tidey keeping things extremely tight.

With scoring at a premium it was only a matter of time before Reed got the first breakthrough and it fell to Pete Tidey with the score on 13. C. Smith and R. Mohammed then shared in a partnership of 30 before Berks removed Carlisle for 26. This breakthrough then opened the flood gates and a further 4 wickets fell to leave Abbots Langley in deep trouble at 62 for 6 in the 24th over with Tidey picking up 4 wickets and Berks 2. The surge of wickets came to an end when B. Warner and T. Mir shared in a partnership of 73 in 21 overs before Berks added 2 more wickets to leave Abbots Langley 8 down and giving Reed a slim chance of victory, but the Abbots Langley batsman managed to last the remaining overs to finish on 139 for 8 with T. Mir finishing on a stubborn 25 not out to add to his 5 wicket haul.

Pete Tidey once again bowled economically to finish with 4 – 43 from 17 overs and hero of the day Michael Berks also finished with a 4 wicket haul to help Reed to a total of 14 points to the oppositions 9.