Reed raced to 8th in Division 2 of the Saracens Herts League as they delivered a killer blow to Preston at home on Saturday. Winning by 40 runs, this victory marked the 1st XI’s second success of the season, following a speight of strong batting performances.

Having lost the toss, the visiting team strangely decided to field, despite Reed scoring 261 in their last batting performance the week before and the pitch remaining very firm.

N. Walters (15-5-44-1) and R.Gatehouse (18-2-84-0) battled hard, but they were no match on this occasion for James Heslam (75), who scored freely all around the wicket following a scorching ton the week before at Northchurch. He was ably supported by Tom Fulk (19), who was unlucky to fall to a good ball early on.

However, with Chris Jackson (72*), returning to his usual glorious form, joining Heslam, the score really began to accelerate, with A.Riant (7-0-42-1) being a victim of the bludgeoning. Even when Heslam fell with the score on 126, Baz Curtis assumed his mantle and smashed a trademark 55 off a handful of deliveries to haul the team to 230-3 declaring off 49 overs, allowing the hosts to hedge their bets against the weather.

Preston‚s reply began disappointingly for them, as Michael Berks (12-1-63-1) had A.Catlin (6) caught by Richard Jerome at first slip. Will Clarke (9-3-28-3) did some further damage at the other end, as he took 3 quick wickets, thanks to some sharp catching, the best a one handed dive by James Heslam.

This reduced Preston to 50-4, but R. Gatehouse was judging the ball ominously well as he began to crack an imperious 74. Ably supported by A.Ander (52), who was dropped on 0, and 3 times after this, they raced the score to 168 thanks to some lusty blows intelligent running between the wickets.

However, when Ander tried to sweep a straight delivery from Richard Jerome (9.1-0-24-3), the umpire had no choice but to break up their partnership. This forced Gatehouse to play a rash stroke to deep midwicket where Will Clarke pouched the catch. With their anchormen removed, Reed had broken the opposition’s back. It only took some characteristic swing bowling from Peter Tidey (11-2-53-2), another wicket from Jerome plus a run-out, to end Preston‚s charge as 4 wickets fell for 15 runs giving Reed their deserved 30 point allocation. As the players left the field and changed, the rain came in force, just a few minutes too late for Preston.