Reed managed to get their Hertfordshire League drive back on track on Saturday as they registered a healthy winning draw of 17 points against Broxbourne. Reed now lie 10th in a tightly packed midtable of Division 2.

Despite losing the toss and being asked to bat on a wet wicket, Reed amassed a staggering 206-9 off their 53 overs. Some probing seam bowling by A.Rhodes (11-2-29-2) helped reduce the hosts to 54-3 off 15 overs despite a steady knock of 32 by James Heslam. Michael Curtis‚ quickfire 18 helped steer Reed back on track, but it was a strong partnership between Richard Jerome (75) and Ray Kingshott (29) that steadied the ship for the team.

Jerome wowed the crowd as he smashed 3 consecutive sixes of S.Rosser (7-0-49-1) in the closing overs to boost the total, but it was N.Smith (16-2-43-4) and M.Smith (14-3-54-2) who chipped away at Reed. Will Clarke (11) and Simon Jackson (10) supported the tail strongly to gain the maximum 10 batting points by reaching 200, but with the wicket drying rapidly, Reed needed to bowl well to post a challenging total as the wicket became increasingly friendly to batsmen.

However, Reed got off to a superb start as Michael Berks (14-4-48-3) had C. Dawson LBW with the first ball of the innings. Furthermore, thanks to a sharp run-out opportunity from Tom Fulk in the third over, Broxbourne were left reeling on 3-2. G. Ferguson (9) and K.Francis (25) managed bolster the effort with a decent partnership, but Peter Tidey (13-4-26-1) and Michael Berks split the partnership stalling any effort by the visitors to win the game.

They then continued to bat out for the draw, despite a quickfire 38* from B.Rosser and 30* from N.Smith to gain them an extra batting point. Broxbourne petered out at 152-7 off their 47 over reply.

Simon Jackson was positive after the match commenting: “Although disappointed not to have won, we showed last weeks defeat was a mere blip and that we continue to have a robust batting line-up and coherent bowling unit. We are confident that we can draw positives from today and drive forward again in the league as we had during June and early July.”