Reed convincingly beat fellow promotion chasers Radlett on Saturday taking them to 3rd in the Herts Division 2 . On wicket and outfield which had been subject to the recent rain, Radlett won the toss and put Reed into bat looking to take advantage of the conditions. The raw pace of Radlett’s South African opening bowler J Mafa and the guile of Stuart Browne was watchfully played by Reed’s opening pair of Heslam and Dobson, before the South African took both their wickets with the score at 62.
Chris Jackson had settled in well at this point, and carefully started building an innings with the assistance of the Reed’s middle order. Jackson worked the ball well around the ground in a fine innings of 107. Attempting to take the inning to excess of 200, both Jackson and Reed’s late order fell looking to play their shots. Reed’s 206 for 9 was a challenging total for the visitors, but with the wicket and outfield drying out the conditions were definitely now more in favour of the visitors.
In reply Reed’s opening pair of Lee Johnson and Graham Wilson bowled imperiously, offering the Radlett openers very little rest bite, which soon saw them slowly getting behind the run rate. Johnson took the middle stump of opener Lewis in the 6th over, before a 2nd wicket partnership of 60 was built by Patternott and Walker. Falling behind in the run rate, Walker started to open his arms, before he fell to Morss (1-22), caught in the deep by Jackson. Andy Young (2-19) picked up 2 wickets in a tight spell of bowling, which saw Radlett’s attempt to chase Reed’s total falter.
With the score on 101 for 5, Radlett appeared to be playing for the draw and Reed started to struggle for the wickets they clearly needed. However, a sharp bowling change which re-introduced Graham Wilson (4-51) into the attack was soon rewarded with 3 key wickets, leaving Radlett on 134-8 with 6 overs remaining. Reed then turned to the pace of Lee Johnson (3-30), who clean bowled Radlett’s two remaining batsman with just 14 balls remaining, giving Reed an important, yet convincing win which takes them to third in the league.
