Reeds third eleven arrived at the King George V playing fields for their match against Hatfield Hyde II in the dull weather which was to last the entire match. The ground was wet and over night the pitch had been vandalised by a motorbike creating a muddy track at one end. Never the less, captain Peter Baker went out for the toss and winning put the home side into bat.
Opening the bowling was Kallum Ward (5-1-17-1) and returning David Hill (7-1-28-0) playing his first game since the end of the last season. Ward took the first wicket when he bowled Richardson (17) trying to pull a straight one. Spinner Jason Pallet (15-4-40-2) came on early and put pressure on the hosts along with Ian Roberts (16-3-39-3) as runs became hard to come by and wickets fell at steady intervals. Eventually the partnership of McCann (27) and Arnott (26) started to put runs on the board. After 47 overs Hatfield Hyde had made 162 runs for the loss of 6 wickets, forty runs more than was hoped for thanks to Hussain (20 and Luke (14) leaving them with a defendable score.
Despite heavy showers play was not stopped during the first innings and did not again shower during the second but the pitch was by this point already a muddy mess which the Reed side found hard to bat on. Openers Peter Baker and Aiden Swain really struggled to get any momentum against the Hyde openers, spinners Chavda (21-5-50-0) and McCann (13-2-40-4). Although protecting their wickets Reed could not get any runs especially with the field placements which meant that in the entire innings only nine 4’s were scored. Having lost Baker (10) Reed continued and only reached 50 in the 24th over. Swain lost his wicket for a difficult 42 and the incoming batsmen went about getting the runs by hitting out, however this did not work as wickets started to fall. Running out of wickets and still no where near their target batsmen Alan Ward (27) and Robert Willoughby (10) decided it would be better to settle for a draw and prevent Hyde from picking up 30 points instead of 9. After 43 overs Reed had made only 115 for 5 wickets.
This result has now put extra pressure on the third eleven to win in their up coming matches if they want gain promotion.
