Michael Robertson recorded his maiden century for Reed as his tremendous innings of 111 formed the backbone of Reed III’s 249 – 6 declared against Flamstead II.
Coming to the crease at 51-3 after useful early contributions from Heslam 15 and Swain 21 Robertson put the visitors attack to the sword and made them rue their decision to put Reed into bat. In a fine innings of a quality rarely seen at 3rd Xl level Robertson struck a series of powerful yet classic cricketing shots to all parts of the Sandon ground, recording 9×6’s and 9×4’s, a total of 90 in boundaries in his score of 111.
Much to the relief of the visitors bowlers, Robertson eventually fell bowled with the score at 214 – 4 after a Reed 3rd Xl record partnership of 163 with Masseeh Naeem (35). Skipper Heslam Snr eventually declared the Reed innings closed at 249 – 6 off only 41 overs leaving the home team 49 overs to bowl out the shell shocked opposition.
Reed’s bowlers were equally merciless as openers Rupert Martin 2-5 and Bobby Costen 4-23 reduced Flamstead to a dismal 10 – 5 at one stage. After something of a recovery to 55-5 the introduction of Ward into the attack saw the visitors resistance completely subside and they collapsed to 86 all out with Ward registering 4.2 overs 3 maidens 3-5. Reed registered a mammouth 163 run victory against rivals only two places behind them in the league prior to the days play commencing.
