Reed II completed a good day for the club by strengthening their promotion push with a 64 run victory against Redbourn II.

Winning the toss and batting against their bogey team Reed struggled to dominate and Cridland in particular proved difficult to get away. Ian Fulk scored a steady 36 but the rest of the Reed top order failed to sparkle as they limped to 90-5. However Reed stuck to their task and Richard Johnson’s 43 led a recovery. Ben Bowles 17 Jason Archer 23 and in particular with a fiercely struck 33 eventually saw Reed to maximum batting points at 201-9. For Redbourn, skipper Cridland starred with 19 overs 5 for 29.

Reeds bowlers struck early when Johnson bowled Dobson and apart from contributions by Smith 28 and Bassill 24 they were always struggling against tight Reed bowling and fine fielding. Excellent catches from Bowles Ward and Wilson aided by 2 stumpings from keeper Steve Dunn saw Redbourn slump to 87-8. Porter 22 and Hall 26 staged a late fightback of sorts but the Reed bowlers saw their team home to a 64 run win. Richard Johnson 3-54 Graham Wilson 2-16 Ian Roberts 2-16 Jason Archer 2-27 did the damage as Reed consolidated their position at the top of the league table.