Reed’s 2nd XI got their first win of the league season in an amazing game held at The Green. Skipper Baz Curtis won the toss and decided to bat first despite the damp wicket. This looked a bad decision when both openers were back in the pavilion with the score on just 13. Richard Johnson joined inform Mark King and looked to steady the ship and things started to look a bit more positive until Johnson went for 13 with the score on 45. King continued to dominate punishing anything lose. He was dismissed for 44 including 8x 4s. At 69-5 a win let alone a target to bowl out look out of the question and when 2 more wickets feel quickly it looked like Reed might be frozen out of the points all together.
At 89-7 Sean Tidey came to the crease to join older brother Jack. Both showed great patience and slow began to settle in. They finally saw off Murphy who had taken 6 of the 7 wickets to fall. Sandridge’s second string attack were much more to Reed’s liking. Both batsman began to find the boundary regularly and as the visitors got cold and colder the young pair took full advantage. Both reached their 50s and by now Reed looked like they might have a decent total to bowl at. The pair put on 40 in their first 10 overs together and 61 in the second 10. Reed were on the brink off maximum batting points. Sean became more aggressive and hit the only six of the match straight over the bowlers head. Sean could sense a declaration coming and tried his best to reach his maiden league ton, but was bowled off what was the last ball of the innings for 81, leaving his brother 66 not out. They smashed the 1990 8th wicket record of 73, setting a new mark of 151. From 89-7 to 240-8 was a superb achievement from the pair. Murphy was the pick of the visiting bowlers taking 7-87.
Reed were hoping to knock their guests over quickly and get back in the warm, and things looked rosy when Kallum Ward struck with his first ball for the second week running. He had Murphy caught behind with a brute of a ball. All round Jack Tidey then produced an excellent yorker to remove the Sandridge Captain for a duck. Sandridge moved on to 42 before a mixup between Goodchild and Corran led to a run out. After that Sandridge never really looked like challenging the total, but could Reed get the wickets they required? William Dobson returning from foreign climbs took a wicket on his return and a sharp gully catch, but it was Peter Tidey who starred with the ball. Not to be out done by the younger Tidey generation, he took 4-24 in 10 overs and was the most popular player in Reed when he took the last wicket to allow the players back into the warmth of the pavilion. Sandridge were 124 all out and Reed had won by 116 run.
