Reed shocked promotion hopefuls Northampton Exiles with a stunning
display with bat and ball in this Herts League Division 2 fixture.
Baz Curtis took full advantage of being dropped on nought. He took a
shine to the opening bowling of Robertson hitting him for 32 from his
4 overs. Senior was hard to score off at the other end and had ripped
through Reed’s top order, taking 4 wicket. Runs were coming freely at
the other end and Reed had 100 on the board in just 20 overs. Curtis
was joined by Simon Jackson and they put on 80 for the 6th wicket. A
mixture of some good running and positive batting put Reed on the
brink of maximum batting point when Curtis was out for 117 with the
score on 194. He smashed 15, 4s and 5, 6s in that 117 and when he
reached 101 he passed 1000 runs for the season. Jackson and Robert
Dunn continued to push Reed into the 200s. Exiles needing to win to
keep their promotion hopes alive couldn’t understand where Reed,
needing the points for totally opposite reasons had found this form.
Jackson was dismissed for 34. Peter Costen came in and in his own
unique way smashed 20 in no time. Dunn went for 27, but by then Reed
had passed 250. In the end they set Exiles 256 to win.
Exiles looked up for the challenge as the hit some early loose
bowling, but Richard Robertson and Andrew Emms got back on line and
the batsmen had to start to fight for runs. Robertson made the vital
early break through. Andrew Emms then got into the act picking up 2
wickets. Emms was replaced by Mark Peart and despite bowling at the
free hitting Browne kept things tight. Peart got the vital wicket of
Browne bowling him for 36. Robertson came off after a fine 13 over
spell and Ian Roberts replaced him. He was on the spot straight away
and it wasn’t long before his persistent out swing got its just
rewards. He took 3-20 on 8 overs. Peart also bagged 3 wickets for 37
runs in 11 overs. Two of which came after fine work behind the
timbers from Robert Dunn. He was too swift for Senior and Yeusuf and
had the bails off in a flash. Reed just like the week before couldn’t
get the vital last wicket and then came ended in a draw, but they did
pick up 19 very handy points.
