It was a case of so near so far as Reed 3rds narrowly failed to get off the mark for the league season with a win. Put in to bat by their visitors on a dull, overcast and damp Royston Heath, Reed got off to a steady start but the match changed dramatically when at 42 – 2 John Heslam joined Masseh Naeem at the crease. The pair rapidly set about establishing a significant Reed total as they despatched any loose deliveries to all parts of the ground. Naeem 77 rattled up 10 x 4’s and 2 x 6’s as he strode to 77 and the pair put on a new Reed 3rd Xl record 3rd wicket partnership of 148.
After Naeem fell stumped Heslam continued in dominant form and his innings of 94 including 15 x 4’s and 3 x 6’s only ended when he attempted reach the magic “100” in style and fell caught at long off attempting another maximum. John Kershaw added a solid 30 not out before Reed declared at 258 for 5 off 45 overs.
After tea and a further heavy shower Reed took to the field and soon had Letchworth in trouble at 5 – 2 as Neil Haslam 2 -38 and Ian Roberts 1 -16 bowled economical opening spells. However Letchworth veteran Gilham 34 played a solid anchor role and though wickets fell fairly regularly at the other end the overs began to drip away. Kieran Ward 2 -31 and father Alan Ward 2 – 13 made inroads but Turner 27 not out and Swain 15 not out played out the draw to restrict Reed to 18 league points deny them the maximum 30 point win. Letchworths lack of ambition meant they batted 45 overs for a total of 124 – 8 and ended the match with “0” league points.
