Reed prefromed under par in all departments in this top of the table clash and deservedly went down to their first defeat in a year. The West Indians put Reed in and opened with slow medium bowling and a defensive field that the Reed openers found hard to dominate.

Watts 21 and Ian Fulk 20 clawed their way to 44 without loss, but this took 22 overs to accumulate. Reed badly needed to step up the scoring rate, but wickets fell in the attempt as the visitors score shuddered to 48-3 and then 77-5. Before contributions of 22 from Robertson, 18 from Marcus Martin, 15 from Andrew Emms and 13 from Massey Naeem saw them eventually total an inadequate 130 all out from 48 overs.

Bowling sides out has been the current Reed 2nd XI strength and at 17-2 it seemed they might pull St. Albans back. However a fine partnership of 91 between Cheedi 63 and Harvey 26 took the match beyond Reed.

Both batsmen were dismissed with victory in site and Reed put the pressure on again through Richard Robertson 3-37 and Andrew Emms 2-25, but it was all too late as the home team struggled to reach the required 131 for 7 wickets down.