Reed won the toss and decided to bat in this Herts League Division
2 match. Reed managed to get of to a reasonable start despite the
early loss of Paul Watts. They had 49 on the board when Baz Curtis
was caught and bowled for 34. After that Reed found the going tough
against some tight bowling by Draper. Only Chris Jackson with a
patient 50 seemed to have any answer to him. None of Reed’s middle
could make double figures and again this put the lower order under
pressure. With the wicket getting lower and slower runs were going to
be hard to come by. Robert Dunn and Andrew Emms made 10 and 12
respectively, but Reed were all out off the last ball for 151.
Reed tried to put Datchworth under pressure opening up with the
spin twins of Robert Dunn and Mark Peart. This forced the Datchworth
batsmen to make the pace. Peart got the first break through when the
score was on 40. Ian Roberts replace Dunn and quickly got Reed’s
second wicket. Datchworth were now 56-2. Groves and Hutchinson then
put on a vital 40 before Hutchinson was bowled by the fiery Andrew
Emms. Robert Dunn took a stinging catch to give Peart his second
wicket and suddenly it looked like Reed might be back in the hunt.
Datchworth were now 106-4. Curtis dropped King in the slips and
despite two run outs, that made it 138-6, Datchworth made it home
with 4 wickets to spare.
