Reed’s 2nd XI went into the match needing a point to be sure of staying up and left with all 30. Skipper Jason Archer again won the toss and decided to bat first. It didn’t look good when Baz Curtis was dismissed 3rd ball for a duck. This brought Ed Garrott to crease to join Fergus Martin. Both stood up well to the pace of Smith and didn’t look in too much trouble until Smith managed to nip one away and hit Martin’s off stump. This left Reed 21-2 from 11 overs.
Richard Johnson replaced Martin and hit two lovely fours before chasing a wide one and being caught behind off the bowling of Rhodes. At 32-3 the visitors must have thought the divisional title was in their grasp and another victory in sight. Mitchell Cooper along with Garrott had other ideas and steadied the ship putting on 81 for the 4th wicket. Garrott hitting some lovely drives through the covers. Cooper happy to give Garrott the strike found the gaps and rotated the strike well.
Maximum batting points looked on the cards when Cooper smashed one back only for bowler Rhodes to stick out a foot and deflect the ball onto the stumps leaving Garrott out of his ground. He had looked in full control and a ton wasn’t out of the question, but instead he was run out for 71. Ian Fulk joined Cooper and in his very with his usual Brazilian flare deserting him his stoutly scored 28 to take Reed to 153-5 with only 5 overs left. In a late flurry Reed tried to up the run rate, but only lost wickets. 153-5 soon became 165 and it was left to Peter Tidey and Jason Archer to see the overs out and Reed to 167-9. Rhodes finished with 4-42 from his mammoth 21 overs.
Broxbourne’s reply started slowly, but as Rhodes had turned Reed’s innings the Broxbourne skipper, White, turned his sides. He smashed one back at Andrew Emms who couldn’t hold on, but in the process split the webbing on his bowling hand and had to go off for stitches. This brought Rupert Martin in to the attack and soon had the ball swinging. Peter Tidey bowled Sargent for 1 and despite being down to 10 men Reed were up and running. White was bowled for Martin in the next over and Broxourne were 21-2 going at just over 1 an over.
Seven runs later Martin was at it again having Ferguson caught by Johnson at mid on. Tidey not to be outdone had the dangerous looking Smith caught by Cooper. The ball was in the air for a long time, but the youngster showed great composure to take the catch. Suddenly it was 38-5 and Reed could sense and unlikely victory. A partnership of 31 with Sivakumar bringing some discipline to the reply.
Tidey again broke through having Smith caught a slip for 12 and when Sivakumar chases a wide one from Richard Johnson and was caught by Jack Tidey suddenly it was 77-7. That soon became 9 down as Tidey took his 4th and 5th wicket in two balls, but couldn’t complete the victory with a hattrick. That was left to all round Garrott as he had Davies bowled with his second delivery. Martin ended with 3-23 and Tidey 5-45 just pipping Rhodes to the bowling honours on the day.
A defeat the Broxbourne will find hard to swallow, but 10 man Reed deserved the win.
