Put in to bat on an initially warm and sunny evening Reed got their season off to the worst possible start with the luckless Lewis Fitzgerald needlessly run out off the very first ball without facing. However they picked up after that with William Heslam and Reed Captain Shaun Tidey putting on a brisk 33 before Tidey fell caught at a fly slip for 12 in the 6th over. The fluent Heslam, who demonstrated scoring shots all around the wicket, continued in dominant form and was joined by Sam Deville who punished anything loose with some hard hit boundaries. For Broxbourne Strange and Alyward bowled tidy opening spells followed by Perry and Somiah whose opening overs were also respectable. From the 12th over however Heslam and Deville really cut loose and accelerated the scoring rate with a flurry of fine shots to take Reed to 114 for 2 at the end of the 16th over. At that point Roberts 3 Overs 2 – 13, who proved the most economical of the visiting bowlers, bowled the rampant Heslam for a fine 43 and Lloyd Bowman followed for a first ball duck. Next over Deville fell caught for a hard hit 37 leaving Will Kirby and Matthew Naeem to see Reed through to 130 for 5 off their 20 Overs.
In reply Broxbourne got off to a solid start with Roberts and Perry demonstrating an excellent personal understanding and exemplary running between the wickets. Despite the Reed bowling of Fitzgerald, and Heslam being reasonably tight Broxbourne achieved 5 an over for the first 5 overs and were well in the hunt to achieve a win.
Reed’s fielders had to work hard to make up for being a man short due to a late illness but Shaun Tidey excelled behind the stumps and captained the side astutely. The turning point of the game was the introduction of Sam Deville into the attack who bowled 3 overs 0 – 4 and put the brakes on the Broxbourne charge. Reed found wickets hard to come by as Roberts 26 and Perry 38 not out put together a good opening partnership but after 10 overs with the score at 43 for 0 they were getting somewhat behind the rate.
Roberts eventually fell for 26 to a magnificent running catch in the deep by Reed’s Scott Kaine and the incoming batsmen, faced with a daunting and rising run rate, could not get to real grips with the Reed bowling. Fitzgerald 4 Overs for 19, Heslam 3 Overs for 12, Deville 4 Overs for 13, effected the containment whilst Tom Jeffries 4 Overs 2 for 24 and Will Kirby 4 Overs 2 – 25 survived the late Broxbourne scramble for runs relatively unscathed. Keiran Willoughby 1 Over for 7 bowled the last over in the gathering gloom which saw Reed winners by 26 runs.
A good kick off to the season for both teams and an interesting match played in an exemplary spirit.
