Reed travelled to Hitchen to face off against Knebworth Blue in a 40/40 friendly. The hosts had won the toss and asked Reed to field first.
Jack Caine and Joe Graves opened the attack for Reed and both bowled superbly as the decision to bat first looked like a mistake. Graves finished his spell unfortunately without a wicket but none-the less had bowled well. Caine meanwhile had taken the first wicket of the day thanks to a simple catch in the covers. Reed captain Marcus J.E. Baker wanted to maintain the pressure on the opposition after the opening spells of Graves and Caine and so asked Maseeh and Mathew Naeem to replace them.
This proved the right call as by drinks the hosts were on 84 for 4. Saunders (36) had begun to look dangerous before a fantastic catch at deep square leg by Matt Naeem off his father’s bowling ended his attack.
However, things then took a turn for the worse as Wallis and Gill began to bludgeon the ball to the boundary. The pair added 156 together in close to no time. Julian Fynn (6-0-31-1) removed Gill (74) and a returning Caine (8-3-21-2) took Wallis (76) but the damage was already done. The Blues finished with 241 for 6, Masseh Naeem (5-0-31-1) had held a good line whilst Matt Naeem’s figures (8-1-55-2) took a bit of damage in his last two overs as Wallis and Gill were getting going.
Reeds top three then struggled to read the pitch which was now not getting up at all due to the slow pace of the opposition bowling. Steve Lovegrove and Jack Caine then stopped the rot with a fine partnership. Caine displayed both his all round ability and his maturity with a sensible innings of 24 when he was caught in the slips. Maseeh Naeem then joined Lovegrove and began to play the ball around nicely and certainly kept Reed in the fight.
Lovegrove (26) then too suffered from the slow pace having charged the ball, played too early and was stumped. Naeem continued and reached 41 before being caught in the deep. Reed skipper, Baker then came to the crease and played the support role to Lloyd Bowman who played an impressive innings of 28 taking Reed over the 150 mark. However after Bowman was lost the tail soon followed, leaving Baker on 23* and Reed 72 runs shy of victory. An unfortunate loss after a very promising start.
