Reed continued their league campaign with another solid victory, over Broxbourne at the Freman College ground. Peter Baker lost the toss and was asked to bat first by the visiting captain. The track was solid and flat and for once the weather was forecast for a lovely day. Peter Baker again opened with a Garrott, this time it was George Garrotts turn as he and Baker made a good start for Reed. The score was 69 when G. Garrott was bowled for 35 (8×4’s), this wicket brought Roddy Liebenberg to the crease. Recovering from injury, the recently moved Reed resident made his presence known as he made runs easily, hitting the ball hard past the young side. At the Freman ground when the ball has got past the infield its almost certainly going to make it to the boundary no matter how hard you strike the ball, but just to be sure Liebenberg smashed the ball and quickly overtook P. Baker.
With the score on 206 from only 27 overs Reed lost Baker for a well crafted 50, which brought in Sam Deville (8) who was unfortunate not to find the same success he found last week. Marcus J.E. Baker then came to the crease and was there when Liebenberg (100) reached three figures with one of very few singles in his innings (82 runs in boundaries, 16×4 & 3×6). M.J.E. Baker and Alan Ward then continued to frustrate Broxbourne after Liebenberg’s retirement as they tried to get as many runs as possible on the board by the fortieth over. However, the declaration actually came an over earlier and after 39 overs Reed had finished on 296 for 7. M.J.E. Baker had struck 22 but was caught off a miss hit and A. Ward came off undefeated for 34*.
Reed had given themselves 51 overs to bowl out their opposition which seemed more than enough to begin with but in fact it took 49.1 overs for the final wicket to fall. A run out by George Garrott got the ball rolling but stubborn innings from P. Davies (39) and J. Padgham (26) early on frustrated Reed. But a flurry of wickets from Dominic McComish (9-0-43-2) and Ian Roberts (13-4-20-3) got Reed back on track before the partnership of C. Rosser and C. Middleton again stopped Reed in their tracks. The young wicket keeper and the veteran captain blocked Reed out and used up a good amount of overs. Middleton (30) eventually fell but the rest of the tail were equally certain to play out for a draw. Reed still required 4 wickets in the dying overs when P. Baker turned to Liebenberg who took the ball and made certain it was his day. Bowling off only a few paces with his leg all strapped up he found pace and swing taking Rosser (24) and soon enough the rest of the tail finishing with figures of 4 for 14 from 4. It was a very good effort by Broxbourne who nearly held out for the draw but in the end it was another win and another 30 points for Reed who had out played the opposition.
