Reed carried on their recent good form with a crushing 114 victory against St Albans II on Saturday. The victory was even more impressive considering that Reed were missing 4 influential regulars.

Reed lost the toss and were put into bat by St Albans unsurprisingly on a green and damp wicket. Reed openers Baz Curtis and Tom Fulk then went on share an opening partnership of 101 in 24 overs with Baz Curtis being the playmaker unleashing a number of unstoppable shots to the boundary and Fulk playing the supporting role to allow Curtis to be the destroyer.

Curtis’s powerful innings came to an end for 65 when he was caught at first slip. Skipper Simon Jackson fell second ball to a debatable lbw decision to give A. Khan (3-45) his second wicket of the over. Reed then lost Fulk (35) and Richard Johnson (12) in quick time to leave the hard work put in, in serious jeopardy at 133 for 4 after 33 overs.

But experienced cricketer Ray Kingshott played a superb innings of 51 not out to give Reed another lift and with valuable support from Michael Berks (11) and Ben Bowles (15) Reed managed to finish on a superb 205 for 7 of their 53 overs, and with 4 of the normal top 6 missing it was an exceptional effort by a makeshift batting line-up.

St Albans innings got to a flying start with the openers playing their shots from the very start. But Michael Berks playing in his last game of the season before he goes away for the rest of the season made the initial breakthrough to remove A. Roffey (5). When the big hitting T. Fretter was then removed for what would turn out St Albans innings top score of 32 by Berks (2-30) St Albans were struggling at 43 for 2.

Things didn’t get better for St Albans when Andrew Emms joined the bowling attack with Reed warhorse Pete Tidey. The two of them went on to bowl devastating spells of bowling to blow away the rest of the fragile St Albans batting line up. With the next 8 wickets falling for just 48 runs with Tidey finishing up with 4 for 31 from 15.4 overs and Andrew Emms recording his best 1st team bowling figures for a number of years of 3 for 20 of 8 overs. This victory left Reed unbeaten in their last 3 league games and in confident mood for their upcoming game against Knebworth Park II.