Reed retained their leading position in Herts League Division 2, despite chasers, Berkhamstead, managing to close the gap, after Reed drew their first game of the season at home against Flitwick. Reed now lead Division 2 by 11 points.

Having won the toss, and electing to bowl of a damp, green wicket, Reed set about their task in earnest as Andrew Young (9-1-50-1) had P Gurney caught at third slip for a duck by skipper James Heslam with a classic fast bowler’s delivery cutting away off the seam.

This brought Flitwick’s prolific South African overseas player, B Moses (115*) to the crease. Teaming up with fellow opener C Ferguson (40), the pair began to get to work as they dragged the score to 94-1, with some good running between the wickets, although they could have considered themselves fortunate with some close chances off Tidey (18-3-51-3) and some probing deliveries from Andy Young.

However, soon after the drinks break, Ferguson’s charging of Tidey came to an end as he rode his luck too far, Simon Jackson dislodging the bails with a perfect stumping leaving the visitors 94-2. New bowler William Clarke (10-1-47-1) then despatched newcomer J Heart (0) without much fuss swinging the game back into Reed’s favour. Tidey continued to work hard with Clarke to reduce the run rate and force two further wickets through his trademark accuracy and pressure-building bowling.

However, Moses remained at the crease dominating the strike, and the majority of the innings, with Reed desperately needing his wicket to get amongst the opposition. Reed continued to chip away from the bottom up, as Andrew Young completed a sharp run out opportunity to dislodge M Harvey from his perch for 12, and James Heslam then performed a direct hit on Whinnet to leave Flitwick 189-8. However, Moses had different ideas as he opened his shoulders to lift Flitwick to a competitive 212-9, even with Graham Wilson (8-0-31-2) snaffling 2 late order wickets.

With rain threatening Reed’s early innings reply, it could not have started worse, as Heslam, returning from a successful game in the Herts League representative side, misjudged the pace of the ball to be dismissed for a duck. Baz Curtis (37) found his feet to add some weight to the chase together with Chris Jackson (49) taking the score to 69 for 1 off 18 overs. It seemed that Reed stood a good chance to press home an advantage, but the bowling of Moses, opening the innings on the back of his lengthy batting display, toiled for 17 overs to take 1-47. When Curtis was the victim of an unfortunate LBW decision, Tom Fulk (24) teamed up with Jackson, but the latter, in an attempt to force the pace of the game was unlucky to be caught brilliantly by Moses in the covers. With William Clarke (17) and Fulk at the crease the run rate was mounting, and D Read (10-3-25-5) continued to keep runs tight with some good accurate leg cutters. When he eventually had Fulk LBW again to a ball which must have cut extremely sharply off the seam to have conceivably hit the wickets, Marcus Martin (8) joined Clarke, but was soon bowled by Read. Simon Jackson nudged his way forward to 7*, but Clarke, attempting to force the pace was also bowled by Read.

Reed then decided to shut up shop, and deny Flitwick 30 points by playing for the draw, as the run rate became slightly unattainable, and going for it would have been an undue risk. They closed their innings eventually on 164-8 off 47 overs.

James Heslam commented after the game, “It was a shame that the game ended as it did for us. We bowled well, Moses batted very carefully and sensibly throughout, but our batting slightly let us down. We were in with a good chance, but losing wickets at key moments proved unfortunate. Our fielding was good, with 2 run outs and on balance we felt we had the edge over their batting”

Reed are due to face Weleyn Garden City IIs away next Saturday.