A depleted Reed side got off to a flying start at home to Radlett 2s on Saturday when Baz Curtis smashed 26 runs from the first 3 overs before falling to Dummer for 30. This bought in the in form Chris Jackson to partner season debutant James Heslam, fresh from University.

Last season’s two star batsman continued where Curtis left off, putting together a classy partnership of 72. Heslam was first to fall for 63 whilst Jackson fell shortly after having completed his half century for 51.

This bought together Ray Kingshott and skipper Simon Jackson. Together they continued to lay the foundations for an excellent total, with Jackson inparticular showing some excellent form. At the other end Kingshott played elegantly before he was cruelly run out by his captain for 25. Some hard hitting towards the end by John Heslam and Simon Jackson saw Reed race to the 250 run mark before Jackson was bowled out for 48 in the penultimate over. Reed declared in 52nd over with 258 on the board for the loss of 5 wickets.

In reply Radlett got off to the worst possible start. Two Pete Tidey wickets and an excellent run out by Michael Berks saw them struggling at 6 for 3 off just 6 overs. Some tight bowling by Tidey and Richard Jerome continued to peg the visitors back but a fine partnership from Hampton and Smithers gave Radlett a glimmer of a chance of victory.

However once Hampton was out for 73, Radlett settled for the draw. Even the introduction of another season debutant in Berks, very economical bowling from Jerome (2 for 28) and another marathon bowling spell from Tidey (24 over, 3 for 75), Reed couldn’t bowl out Radlett who limped to 140 for 7 in their 48 overs. The game finished in a draw with Reed collecting a healthy 17 points.

With Reed missing a number of key players, captain Simon Jackson was extremely happy with the result, despite not picking up the full 30 points. Jackson said “it was a superb batting performance from all our batsman especially as it was a real game for players to stand up and be counted, and they did. We caught our catches, bowled and fielded well but it was so hard to bowl a side out on batting wicket as good as that one”