Reed 1st XI surged to a crushing victory over Knebworth Park IIs on Saturday. The hosts became Reed’s third victory in their last 4 games as they fell 46 runs short.

On a wicket tinged with green, and under overcast skies, Knebworth took no time in inserting Reed to bat after winning the toss. It certainly proved to be an excellent decision, as opener Tom Fulk fell for a duck to a controversial catch behind with the score of 5.

James Heslam (9) and Baz Curtis (40) stabilised this early upset pulling the score to 30, until Heslam tickled a delivery to the wicket keeper off S. Robinson (2-31). The innings began to falter when Heslam fell, and an unnecessary run-out accounting for Chris Jackson (7) helped the home team firmly take control of the game.

It took some gallant and stubborn batting from Ray Kingshott (14), Stuart Smith (15), Richard Jerome (24) and Peter Tidey (12) later on to stabilise Reed’s innings, but no batsman managed to capitalise upon their start, meaning Reed limped to 147 all out, leaving skipper Simon Jackson stranded on 9*.

The Knebworth Park bowlers used conditions very well with wickets being equally spread between C. Boyd (2-25), P.Slade (1-22), S.Robinson (2-31), S. Reynalds (1-30) and B. Davis (3-33), however the innings, and what eventually impacted on the entire game, was slightly marred by some controversial LBW decisions which ultimately accounted for half of the days 20 wickets.

Knebworth Park’s response began poorly as their opener D.Sanders registered a duck leaving them on 0-1. Despite some crunching blows by C. Boyd (22), he too fell to a clinical stumping by Stuart Smith off Richard Jerome (5-26). Wickets fell regularly as Andrew Emms (3-33) made early inroads into the top order, supported initially by Richard Jerome who eventually assumed the mantle of attacker after Emms rested. Although T. Martin (31) scraped together some runs, he was poorly supported by his team mates who seemed more interested in watching England v. Australia! Reed finally registered a win as Jerome took his 5th wicket, bringing home 30 points for the visitors.

Simon Jackson, 1st XI skipper and club captain commented: “I was delighted with our performance today. Although our batting was a little fragile at points, it was a difficult pitch to master early on. However, our bowlers knuckled down magnificently to snatch a victory from a very precarious position we put ourselves in.”