Reed lost more points in the promotion push with another draw. Losing the toss and being asked to field was no surprise to the home side. The track looked flat and bowling a side out was going to be a struggle. Kallum Ward and Chris Peckett again opened the Reed attack and kept the runs down in the early stages. Butterworth and Summerfield for Flitwick looked in no trouble and it wasn’t until Summerfield called for a quick single that the first wicket came. Roddi Liebenberg swept in from mid wicket and Butterworth couldn’t beat the throw.
Mitchell Cooper replaced Ward and struck quickly having Valentine LBW for a duck. By now Summerfield was in full control. A mixture of positive shot selection and good running saw him reach an easy 50. Chris Peckett was still plugging away and bowled an excellent 20 over spell. He took the wicket of Moss thanks to an excellent catch from James Hooper at mid on. Jason Archer replaced Cooper and it didn’t take long for him to get in the wickets. He took three wickets all bowled and ended up with 3-47 from his 12 overs. Summerfield looked nailed on for a ton, but Fergus Martin got through his defences and bowled him for an excellent 89. He had been joined by Adams and the youngest was keen to take every run on offer. He took up where Summerfield left off and scored a chancless 59 before he was run out. The visitors ended on 228-8 in their 53 overs.
Reed thought the wicket was probably a 240 wicket and that 229 was gettable. Baz Curtis had a new opening partner in Mat Bowles and the pair took the fight to Flitwick. Both played aggressively and didn’t look in any trouble against the new ball. The score had reached 60 when Curtis was bowled for 34. Bowles continued to put the bad ball away and had moved on to 42 when he went LBW with the score on 89. Richard Johnson quickly followed and suddenly the home side were in trouble. Fergus Martin started to rebuild with Cooper. The pair had moved the score to 121 when Cooper was bowled for 21. The rebuilding process had taken some of the momentum out of the Reed innings and winning the game looked a long way off. Sean Tidey tried to up the run rate, but was caught for 8. Martin was stumped for 45 trying to go over the top. The only team now in with a chance of the win were the visitors.
Roddi Liebenberg was joined by James Hooper and their job was to get Reed to maximum batting points. Hooper played some lovely cover drives to edge Reed closer to the 200 target, but going into the last over they needed 11. A no ball came in handy mid way through the over and Liebenberg then hit the last 3 balls for four to get Reed to 203-6. A very enjoyable game. Both sides played the game in the right spirit and the points reflected a close game with Reed edging it 18-16.
