Officially, this fixture was between local villages Chrishall and Therfield but Therfield were short of players and availabilities at Reed meant that in addition to the 1st XI and 2nd XI playing their Herts League fixtures, Reed were able to provide 7 players in this side. Under these circumstances this was recorded as a Reed 3rd XI match which was won by 3 wickets.

Chrishall batted first and A Holmes (68n.o.) cautiously remained at the crease throughout the 45 overs of the innings. Fellow opener R Brunt was dismissed by Therfield’s Nick Duncan for 43 and although Scott scored 13, the other main contributor to the total of 156 for 3 was 27 in extras. Apart from Duncan, the only other wicket taker was Karl Ward who took 1 for 23. However, this match did give an airing of the bowling talents of Graham Wilson, Andrew Wholley and Richie Barlow (who had convinced the skipper that he was regularly called-upon to demonstrate the art of seam-up swingers)!

Reed set-off badly by losing 2 early wickets. One, an LBW, was given-out by the umpire, (one of the Reed side), who must have thought cricket balls behave like Frisbees and thus adjudged the flight of the delivery to be “on target” when it hit the batsman’s legs somewhat out-of-line! However, from this poor start, Reed’s Michael Robertson, Richie Barlow and Andy Wholley showed their all-rounder skills by batting effectively and scoring runs at one end whilst Therfield’s veteran Simon Bradfield (67) occupied the other. With Rob Ellis finishing things off with an undefeated 10 after Bradfield was out, Reed’s 3rd XI overhauled their opponents with 3 wickets in hand.