Reed displayed their skills of old as they yesterday completed a resounding 75 run victory over Abbots Langley and artfully leapfrogged to 9th in the table, after a fortnight of frustrating winning draws.

Despite missing star batsmen Tom Fulk and James Heslam due to holidays this week, Reed skipper, Simon Jackson opted to bat on a pitch which again resembled a bowlers nightmare, and free scoring start by Baz Curtis (29) and William Clarke (16) suggested it would be a long afternoon for the fielding side, particularly as the opening bowlers only chipped in with 4 overs each before the spinners took charge. Yet the introduction of Warner (22-3-0-78-4) and Dunstone (18-0-57-3) slowed the run rate as they progressively chipped away at the top and middle order. At one point it looked like that the home side may be bowled out for under 150, but Chris Jackson found his feet to strike an authoritative and fluent 83, on the back of the league ton last week and Village Cup 80 the following day. With Marcus Martin (38) playing some exquisitce strokes and rotating the strike sensibly, the pair accelerated the scoring rate and managed to drag Reed to a 191 all out off 52.3 overs.

Doubtful whether this would be enough, the Reed bowlers and fielders were mindful to be very tight, and the mindset was immediately rewarded as Michael Berks (8-0-33-2) bowled opener C Smith with a beauty for 18. This was further compounded when Andy Young (14-4-44-2) asserted his authority on the game with an unplayable delivery to their oversease Australian player to bowl him for 1. As the middle order began to settle with Carlisle (26) and Cox (33) helping the score creep nearer 100, it took a gamble from the skipper to bowl Reed’s developing spinner, Chris Jackson (6-2-12-1). On this occasion it paid off, as he caught and bowled Carlisle, and bowling together in unison with Peter Tidey (9.1-9-7-4) they pegged back the scoring and began to put pressure on Abbots Langley. Tidey bowled an exemplary line, a true role model for young swing bowlers, as he tore through the middle order on a lifeless pitch demonstrating one of the main performances of the day.

A destitute Abbots Langley gave up on the chase as they tried to bat out the draw, but sharp catches at short leg by Marcus Martin off Andrew Emms (4-3-2-1) ensured that Reed pressed towards their tail and continued to apply pressure. Some resistance from their no 11 made it seem that a draw was inevitable until some good thinking by opener Berks, by serving a full toss to the young tailender, ended up in a deflected drive off a fielder’s boot presenting a simple catching chance for Reed to give them a long-overdue victory with only 5 balls to spare.

After the game, Reed celebrated their first victory, and Simon Jackson commented: “We feel relieved we now have a win under our belts. We have had some bad luck, some winning draws and poor weather, so to register a win against a team higher than us with 2 main players missing from our set-up, the lads did a fantastic job. It was a really hot day, and we stuck to our task well to ensure Abbots had their first loss of the season.”