The wicket at St Albans chosen 3rd XI ground Verulam School looked poor and in the light of past years experience Reed chose to invite the home team to bat first after winning the toss.

However, the wicket actually played a lot better than it looked and this combined with Reed missing a series of catching and run out chances enabled St Albans to establish a solid total. All the St Albans top order made good totals and only Ian Roberts 4-49 made any impression for Reed as the home side romped to 210-6.

Things got even worse for Reed after the tea interval as their top order batsman meekly subsided to leave the innings in tatters at 20-5. Jamie Warren (12), Jim Allsopp (18) and Archer (13) gave the Reed score a modicum of respectability but it was left to that man Ian Roberts to deliver again this time with the bat. Roberts score of 35 was substantially the largest in the Reed innings as they slumped to a heavy 96 run defeat being all out for 114.