It was always going to be an uphill battle for Reed when they played away to Boxmoor, for one reason the large slope at one end of the pitch, the other reason being they only had 9 players. Reed fielded first despite the further disadvantage of starting with only 7 players as two were caught in traffic. With the score on 38 A. Rasheed (15) came walking down to Neil Haslam only to be stumped by Marcus J.E. Baker, Haslam bowled out his eight overs holding a good line throughout his spell finishing with one for twenty.
That wicket brought in Dukes who along with Chapman made a partnership of 215 for the second wicket, Dukes finished on 103 not out, whilst Josh Conley (8-0-31-2) took two wickets in the last two balls of the innings including that of Chapman (97). Boxmoor finished on 254 for 3.
In reply Reed lost an early wicket by Kieren Willoughby (24) frustrated the opposition by making a partnership of 43 with Peter Bradford (16). After they were both lost Boxmoor must have thought that they had Reed up against the ropes, but they had not counted on father and son due Peter and Marcus Baker both of whom played class shots as they brought up their half centuries. Marcus was then adjudged LBW for 60 but the elder Baker continued the fight with the tail before being stumped for an excellent 84. Josh Conley and Christian Martin both added 7 each to the total but reality set in as Reed were bowled all out for 235 but had certainly made a good go at it loosing by only 19 runs, a much smaller deficit than either teams had expected.
