Reed marched to the top of the league on Saturday with victory over Northwood Town, who were before Saturday themselves at the summit. Town won the toss and it was no surprise they elected to bat on another delightful deck at The Green. The decision appeared to have backfired as Graham Wilson and Richard Johnson soon had them reeling at 35-3. Town skipper Phil Carter then set about rectifying the damage and with Cotton they put on 70 until Emms had the latter bowled. Carter was a thorn in the side though, cashing in on an early drop to reach his 50 before King had him well caught behind by Robertson. With plenty of overs left and the score on 170-5, skipper Jason Archer brought himself into the attack with Johnson as his foil. The pair removed Town’s last 5 batsmen for just 11 runs. Archer finishing with 4 for 7 off six overs. The total of 181 looked 50 short, in fact it was a long way short as Reed’s innings was to show.
Reed’s opening partnership of Fergus Martin and Mark King was superb. Youngster Martin, the perfect foil for swashbuckling King. Fergus embedded himself rotating the strike as King stroked the ball delightfully to all parts of the ground. No bowler was spared as King broke the heart of the oppositions attack. The 50 partnership was reached in the 15th over, the 100 partnership in the 25th and the total of 182 required was reached on the last ball of the 32 over. Reed celebrated a decisive 10 wicket victory with Martin 42 not out and King 130 not out. King’s innings an absolute delight.
Archer commented “ What a performance against the league leaders. We had a sticky patch when we were looking for the 4th wicket, but we recovered and as soon as we took it, we were on top and never relinquished our strangle hold on the game. Fergus was excellent, but Mark King’s innings was full of superlatives. If we can keep up this level of performance we will definitely find ourselves in the promotion shake up.”
