After the extreme rain of the day before Reed’s Sunday Seconds were indeed lucky to arrive at Guilden Morden to find a perfectly playable pitch. Due to a local fund rising bbq there were several spectators located around the ground to watch the game. Reed captain George Greaves lost the toss and was subsequently asked to bat first. Greaves went out with Peter Baker and started slowly as the outfield was not giving away many boundaries.
Greaves (17) looked in fine touch until a good catch out in the deep ended his innings. Reed then suffered a collapse as four more wickets fell with little to no contribution to the then low total of 50 for 5 from 22 overs. P. Baker was then joined out in the middle by son Marcus who after a shaky first few balls found his eye scoring his first runs with a huge six. The pair rotated the strike as they successfully fended off the Guilden bowling.
The Baker boys made an undefeated 117 together in 18 overs, P. Baker made 62 (6×4, 1×6) and M.J.E. Baker made 50 (5×4, 2×6) as Reed finished on the competitive score of 167 for 5. For the opposition Sean Tidey (8-0-30-3) showed his all round ability. Neil Haslam (4-0-43-1) took one in his first over however Guilden could boast having former county player, Ben Ingrey who came in at number 3 and proceeded to take Reed apart. Despite wickets from Matt Giblin (6-0-19-1) and Michael Naeem (3-0-27-1), both of whom held good lines Guilden reached their total in only the nineteenth over, Ingrey scoring 86 and S. Tidey 44.
