Reed travelled to play Flamstead with the visitors 6th and the home side 5th in the table. A close game was always going to be on the cards. With Matt Bowles pulling up lame just prior to the game, Reed had to play with 10 men. Peter Tidey won the toss and had no hesitation in asking their hosts to bat first on a wet wicket. Flamstead got off to a steady start against the opening attack of Kallum Ward and Mitchell Cooper. Both went for 18 off their 7 overs, but Cooper was the one who made the breakthrough having Oswin caught by Richard Johnson for 19.
Despite the pitch being damp, and drying surprisingly quickly their were no demons in the track except for the odd ball keeping low. Karl Ward replaced his brother and Peter Tidey replaced Cooper. Ward bowled an excellent line and length. Tidey got the ball to swing from his first ball and looked the most likely to get a wicket. The score had reached 48 when Sean Tidey took a swift stumping to remove Galyor for 20. Eleven runs later he struck again to leave the home side 59-3. They still looked very solid with the bat and it looked like a big total could be on the cards.
Brown came to the crease and started to put bat to ball. His first 5 scoring shots were all boundaries and the game was going away from Reed. The Reed skipper decided the best cause of action was to try to keep Brown off strike as much as possible and this seemed to work a treat. Tidey was now in full flow. The 4th wicket fell at 85 and the score had moved to 111 when the 5th wicket went down. Ward bowled Invan for a duck and removed the dangerous Brown for 42. Tidey then ripped out the tail and Flamstead were all out for 119, losing their last 6 wickets for 34 runs.
Reed’s reply looked solid until Baz Curtis was run out backing up at the non strikers end. Flamstead took the new ball 5 overs into the innings and it paid off straight away. Fergus Martin was caught behind for a duck and William Heslam followed when a low ball got past his defences and was bowled. At 12-3 Reed need an experienced head to steady the ship. Richard Johnson was just the man. Despite being dropped he batted beautifully for 29 and along with Karl Ward looked to be getting Reed back on track. Ward was caught for 10 just after the drinks interval and Johnson was adjusted LBW for a fine 29 when the score was on 63. Six down was affectively 7 down with only having 10 men. Sean Tidey was joined by Mitchell Cooper and slowly but surely they started to knock off the runs required. Tidey was the more aggressive of the 2, but with good shot selection he put the bad ball away and had moved to 26 when a sharp downpour brought play to halt.
Flamstead had the covers on quickly and their was plenty of time left in the game so hopefully the ground could dry. Unfortunately too much rain had fallen and the game was abandoned as a draw with Reed 92-6. Tidey 26 not out and Cooper 11 not out. A sad way to end the game as it was finely balanced and would have had an exciting finish.
