Reed registered their third successive North Herts League victory on Sunday as they travelled to Barnet and beat Rosslyn CC by 8 wickets.

On one of the hottest days of the year, Reed’s skipper, Jason Archer made the prudent decision to bowl first on a pitch which offered some lively and unpredictable bounce. Rosslyn began slowly, with Will Clarke (8-4-18-1) and Rupert Martin (7-1-25-1) restricting the home side early. It took a breakthrough by Clarke to dismiss their opener D.Patel for 12 for the home side to begin to crumble. Some pin-point bowling by Jason Archer (8-2-13-5) allowed him to rip out the middle order all bowled, whilst Curtis (8-0-55-2) offered a supporting role with 2 wickets thanks to some excellent field support with his new found leg spin. Danny Champion (7.5-3-13-1) also bowled with accuracy and fire as he was unlucky to only pick up 1 wicket at the end. Notable batting performance was the 39* by J.Clements who carried his bat throughout the entire innings.

The total never looked like it would trouble Reed, as Tom Fulk (18) and Ian Fulk (51*) set about building a solid platform of 51. It was only when Tom Fulk was snared LBW by a low bouncing delivery that the pace of the innings increased, as James Heslam, eager for match practice after a series of disappointing Herts League innings, opened his shoulders to score a magnificent 46*, including some exquisite cover drives and a mammoth six to the longest boundary. Ian Fulk, close to his half century played an excellent supporting role to Heslam later in the innings, and eventually reached the milestone in the penultimate over following a crunching six over square leg.

Jason Archer was delighted with his team’s sterling performance commenting: “The lads really applied themselves in really tough pitch and weather conditions. I couldn’t have asked for more.”