Bishops Stortford got off to a good start at Reed on Saturday due to hard hitting from West Indian Michael Edwards. However tight bowling from the returning Andrew Emms and the old stalwart Pete Tidey caused a risky single for the batsman and the captain Sandy Bernerd sacrificed his own wicket for that of the overseas player.

The incoming batsman Humphreys (32) was shortly after hit on the end by a bouncer from Emms, before Simon Jackson ran out Edwards (42) with a direct hit. However after 21 overs Stortford were flying at 102 for 2. The introduction of Richard Jerome, some superb fielding by Reed and another tireless 26 over spell from Tidey slowed Stortford down and Reed regained control of the game and succesfully bowled out Stortford for 159 with 1 over to spare. Tidey was the pick of the bowlers taking 7 wickets for 79 runs in his marathon spell bowling into the very strong headwind throughout whilst Jerome only went for 37 runs in 17 overs in tandem with Tidey.

In reply Reed got off to a poor start after some lively bowling from Australian fast bowler Kev Reimes (4 for 21) and were left realing at 25-6, before Jackson and Stuart Smith (33) steadied the ship putting on 41 for the 7th wickets.

However after Jackson became the first of 3 quick LBWs, the game finished with Reed losing by 84 runs. Reed Captain Jackson said “we dropped a few early chances in the field however we came back superbly in the 2nd half of the Stortford innings. Their 2 overseas players were the difference between the teams. I was disappointed with the batting and how quickly the game finished at the end as it is never nice seeing 3 LBWs in 7 balls. Stu Smith was the only batsman that batted positively which we said we needed to do in the game”.