Reed buried the ghost of their earlier loss during the season to Dunstable as they recorded their first win since early July on Saturday. It also helped close a relegation gap in their first season in division 1 of the Herts League.
Having won the toss, Reed elected to bat and Baz Curtis (14) got the hosts off to a flying start with a punishing opening over against R Blake (8-1-39-1), but it was the bowler who had the last laugh as Curtis off stump was struck in the fourth over leaving Reed 20-1. James Heslam, Reed’s skipper, was well set and he dismissed a recent poor run with a well crafted 33 until he was unlucky to be trapped LBW by C Stearn (8-3-27-2). With J Curk (10), Chris Jackson (14) and Will Dobson (0) all falling cheaply to Luke Cherry (10-0-31-3) and Steve Watts (15-6-30-2), Reed were left reeling on 78 for 5.
But this brought Stuart Smith (46) to the crease who crafted hard with wicket keeper Simon Jackson (2) to comfortably hold their wicket and use some overs. Smith’s innings was epitomised with a resilient defence mixed with some forceful attacking shots. When Jackson was caught and bowled by Stearn, a collapse seemed possible, but William Clarke (20) hit his first two balls for 4 and together with Smith, forged a valuable 54 run partnership against a grinding spin combination of S Watts and S Cherry (9-2-19-0).
When Clarke was eventually bowled off his pads, Smith continued to battle with the tail, and dragged the score to 157 all out off 50.4 overs after he finally capitulated being caught at cover.
Reed’s reply began well as Andrew Young (6-0-28-2) immediately reduced the visitors to 19-2 as Keogh (1) and S Cherry (9) were bowled and stumped respectively thanks to a lightning piece of glovework from Simon Jackson down the legside – surely the finest piece of wicket keeping seen at the Green for many seasons.
C Stearn (45) and G Baines (20) were more troublesome as they began to find their feet until Bernie Morss (16-4-43-3) demonstrated his value with some classical flighted spin bowling to reduce Dunstaable to 77 for 5. The rot continued as Will Dobson at the other end bowled his off spin with poise and control to take 3-41 off 17 overs. The pair then continued to bowl with pressure all afternoon until the close slowly reducing the opposition to 125-9, again with the assistance of another stumping from Simon Jackson, plus a solid catch and run-out from Stuart Smith fielding in the covers. With the overs rapidly expiring and resistance fading, Dunstable began to have one eye on the draw. A tactical bowling change by skipper brought Joe Curk into the scene – he immediately caused problems for No 11 R Simpkins and he was eventually rewarded with a wicket at cover point, where fielders almost collided in comical fashion.
With the final wicket, Curk also delivered a safe 30 points for Reed which brought Dunstable closer to relegation. The race to avoid the drop was also added to as bottom placed Hoddesdon pulled off an uncharacteristic victory.
James Heslam commented: “This was a great performance. Dunstable are a good bowling side and we showed resilience by digging deep with our batting and posting a defendable score. Our bowlers then did the business with our spin twins well and truly bowling in a pressurising partnership.”
Reed are due to face Letchworth at home in a crunch match on Saturday.
