The 2nd XI ended their league campaign with a resounding win of Old Albanian II. Old Albanian needed to win to have any chance of avoiding relegation and started well by winning the toss and deciding to field. The wicket look good to bat on and Reed took full advantage. Reed reverted to a more senior opening partnership with Baz Curtis being joined by Ed Blissett. The pair started solidly enough if not spectacularly. They had only reach 23 from the first 10 over thanks to some tight bowling from Hasan and Burman. Both produced some very good balls that beat the bat.
Both batsman began to get the pace of the wicket and picked up the pace. If the first 10 overs were slow the next 10 overs were more like it. 48 coming from those. Blissett striking the bad ball well and Curtis beginning to find the boundary on regular occasions. Curtis went to his 50 with his second six of the innings. It looked like the pair would put on 100 for the first wicket, but Blissett was out caught for a fine 30, with the score on 92. Old Albanian struck again quickly afterwards and left Reed 106-2.
Richard Johnson then joined Curtis and took full advantage of the good start. Johnson playing the spin well and moving his feet played in his usual elegant manor. A mixture of good running and boundaries kept the scoreboard moving along nicely. 117 runs were added in the next 20 overs. The score was on 188 when Curtis went for one big shot too many and was caught well on the boundary. He had scored 113 from 106, including 11 x4s and 4x 6s.
Roddi Liebenberg joined Johnson and raced to 30 before being bowled. Reed had now passed full batting points and now it was a question of setting the visitors a total that would be a challenge in their relegation fight. Johnson was dismissed for 44 and with overs running out wickets fell as batsman tried to push on. Reed ended on 253-8 from their 53 overs.
Old Albanian needed a good started, but Kallum Ward struck early to leave them 15-1. Skipper Burman promoted himself and with some lusty blows looked to make sure they didn’t go down without a fight. Ward struck again when Burman missed timed a pull shot and was well held by Liebenberg running back from slip. Karl Ward replaced his brother and struck quickly to leave the visitors 79-3 and that quickly became 83-4 when Peter Tidey removed Jakes for an excellent 37. At 115-6 the game looked to be all but over, but Hassan had other ideas and with some lusty blows raced to 50 and gave Old Albanian some hope. Mitchell Cooper replaced Ward and took 2 quick wickets, but Hassan was still playing well. Will Clarke came back into the attack replacing Tidey. Hassan decided to try and hit him out of the attack, but was caught at long off by Ed Blissett with one of the catches of the season.
Clarke picked up another wicket and it was left to Kallum Ward to take the 10th and final wicket and complete a 91 run win. Reed ended up 6th in the table an improvement on last season.
