Reed’s 2nd XI took on highflying Hitchin II on Saturday hoping a win would give them an outside chance of promotion. The wicket was very green after the down pour on Friday and the Hitchin skipper had no hesitation in asking the home side to bat. Baz Curtis opened with Fergus Martin and the pair made a solid start against some accurate bowling.
Curtis was first to go for 20 when the score was on 37, but it was looking like the wicket wasn’t going to be the minefield the opposition had hoped for. Richard Johnson joined Martin and again the pair looked comfortable. Martin was pushing the ball around nicely and rotating the strike. With a damp outfield the batsman weren’t getting full value for their shots with lots of 2s being run when on other days they would have been 4s. It wasn’t until Martin had got into the 60s before he struck his first boundary and then all of a sudden three came at once.
Johnsons was looking assured at the other end and he too reached 50 before being caught off the bowling of Slack who had bowled unchanged from the pavilion end. The pair had put on 128 for the 2nd wicket and it looked like Reed would post a good total. Martin finally fell for 89 when it looked like he was nailed on for his ton. Will Dobson look good for his quick fire 23 and saw Reed to maximum batting points and the declaration. Slack had bowled unchanged and took 3-88 as Reed posted 201-6. The visitor were looking for 10 points to guarantee their promotion, but after putting Reed in had only picked up 1.
After tea Graham Wilson and Rupert Martin opened the attack for Reed in bright sunshine and it looked like a full game would be played. Wilson took full advantage of the conditions and made the wicket look like a different track after tea, but it was Martin who struck first bowling Gwinnett for a duck. Wilson had Woolley caught behind also for a duck, and when Martin struck again the visitors were 10-3. Then came a heavy shower that had the players leave the pitch.
To Hitchin’s credit they went straight back out as soon as the umpires wanted play to continue and a fine partnership between Johnson and Thomson. Johnson became Wilson’s second victim, again caught behind. The pair had put on 43 for the fourth wicket. Keiran Wheeler came into the attack and more storm clouds loomed and managed to pick up two more wickets. All of a sudden the lights want out and the umpires had no choice but to take the players off as batsman and fielders alike struggled to see the ball in August at 6.15pm. Rain quickly followed and the game was called off as a draw.
The 16 points Reed picked up weren’t enough to keep them in the promotion push. A poor mid season put paid to that, but hopefully the young side will have learnt from that and come back better for it next season.
