Royston Won the toss and put Reed in to bat. Reed scored steadily for the first half of the innings, despite losing the early wicket of Tim Banks in the 3rd over, Reece Fitzgerald and Connor Poulton both scored frequent boundaries taking Reece to 32 when he had to retire and Connor to 28 when he was bowled by Lorcan George. Had the batting side managed to keep up the run rate for the second half we could have been in with a score of around 120. As it was Reed finished on 107 for 6 with only 20 runs off the last 7 overs. Best of the 9 bowlers used by Royston was R Ponting 4-1-2-8.
When Royston went into bat it was early wickets that Reed needed to gain the advantage. The opening bowlers were not finding these but when Owen Hughes came on and took two wickets with his first two balls this rallied the home side. Loran George was caught by Jack Caine for 11 and Max Ayliffe fell for 0. The change of bowlers definitely slowed Royston’s scoring rate but it then picked up and for the second half of the innings they scored steadily. The wicket of Evan Goldman (25) second catch for Jack off of Connors bowling lifted Reed again. It was always going to the wire and an inspired death bowling over from Owen Hughes (4-0-2-18) secured the win for Reed by just 4 runs. Best of the rest was Reece 4-1-1-12.
