After 3 weeks of rained off games, it was a relief all round for Reed to arrive at London Colney with the sun shining and the pitch dry. Captain Jason Archer lost the toss, and Reed were put into bat. The pitch proved to be very slow, and combined with the large boundaries, Reed’s openers Ben Bowles and Fergus Martin set the Reed innings off tentatively. Bowles and Martin saw off the opening Overs, and Bowles was beginning to find his feet, striking two aggressive boundaries, before he played down the wrong line and was bowled for 13. Martin remained resolute and continued his quest to see off the new bowlers. Mark king, returning after over a month out with a hamstring injury, was unable to resurrect the form that saw him make an unbeaten century in his previous game and miss timed a straight drive to mid off to leave Reed 20 for 2. This brought Ian Fulk to the crease, and along with Martin, Fulk dug in early on to ensure Reed didn’t collapse.

Fulk began loosen his arms and strike the ball to the boundary, but Reed’s scoring rate was still very slow, and when Martin was trapped LBW for 7, Reed were looking down the barrel of another collapse, at 49-3 after 25 Overs. Matt Bowles then joined Fulk in the middle, and the pair set about salvaging the innings and upping the run rate. Bowles looked particularly strong off his legs, and Fulk was playing some masterful back foot strokes. Fulk soon reached his 50, as he and Bowles put on 87 for the next wicket, with Bowles falling for a well made and powerful 36. Big hitting Jim Allsopp then joined Fulk at the crease, and played a cameo innings, striking a massive 6, and three 4’s in his quick fire 24. When Allsopp departed, soon to be followed by the magnificent Fulk for a superb 78, Karl Ward and Steve Lovegrove came to the middle to try and up Reed’s total further. The pair batted the final Overs brilliantly, mixing some huge boundary shots, particularly from Ward, and good running. This saw the pair put on a 45 run partnership, with Ward ending unbeaten on 30, and Lovegrove similarly on 14. Reed scored a hefty 135 runs in the last 20 Overs, 75 of which coming in the last 10, leaving them with a good score of 210-7 off of their allotted 53 Overs.

In reply, London Colney had to deal with bowling from the wily Richard Robertson and the energetic Karl Ward. Robertson bowled a highly economical 8 Over stint in the very warm conditions, which yielded 1 wicket for only 16 runs. Ward was tireless in his efforts for the team, bowling a mammoth 15 Over stint and doing so extremely effectively. Ward’s figures showed this, with the 15 Overs he bowled going for only 52 runs, and gaining him 2 wickets in the process.. Despite the gargantuan efforts of the reed bowlers, Colney still made it to 110-4 around the halfway stage, largely due to a powerful innings from McCartney, who remained unbeaten at this point. Jim Allsopp picked up a wicket in this spell too, his hostile bouncer too much for the Colney batsman, who gloved it behind to Lovegrove.

With the game in the balance, Captain Jason Archer elected to bring himself on to bowl, in conjunction with spinner Ben Bowles. McCartney continued to play well, but eventually fell to the lethal bowling of Ben Bowles, after a good catch from Archer in short extra cover for 79. Archer then began his assault on the Colney Batsmen, with his clever bowling accounting for 4 wickets, leaving the tail exposed. However, Colney Batsman Rouse remained, and seemed intent on bludgeoning all in his way. He hit a couple of sixes on his way to 45. With only 5 Overs remaining, Reed required just one wicket to win, however Rouse was playing well, and being backed up by his partner who blocked anything remotely straight. Just as it looked as though reed’s valiant efforts would be in vein and would have to settle for a draw, Rouse went for a big shot off of Ben Bowles and was caught superbly in the deep by Matt Bowles. This gave Reed their first 30 point maximum of the season, and moved them up out of the bottom 4 and close to mid table.

Captain Jason Archer commented: “I’m absolutely delighted, and very relieved too. We are long overdue a win, and we fully deserved it today. We batted well, especially Ian Fulk, who was magnificent, and then we backed it up with good bowling and fielding. We must now push on and use this for a catalyst for the rest of the season. I’m chuffed to beans.”