Reed travelled to St. Margaretsbury on Saturday hoping to put last weeks defeat behind them. Reed’s skipper wasn’t too disappointed when he lost the toss and was asked to field. Opening bowlers Mitchell Cooper and Toby Fynn made good use of the damp track and soon had the home side 8-3. Fynn finished his spell with 1-5 from 4 overs and was replaced by Rupert Martin. Martin was again unlucky when a catch in the covers was put down with the score on 9.
Cooper took 2 wickets in his opening spell before he was replaced by Pete Tidey. Martin and Tidey bowled well and kept chipping away. The home side battled well on the slow track. Miller topped scored with 34 before becoming one of Martin’s three victims. Martin finished with 3-41. St. Margaretsbury’s skipper came in and put bat to ball and it looked like he would get him well past 100 before Tidey had him LBW. The home side were 99-7 before Cooper returned to mop up the tail. St. Margaretsbury lost their 3 wickets for just 5 runs, leaving the visitors 105 to win.
The wicket had dried as the game had gone on and if Reed could get through the new ball victory was very much possible. Sheffield and Noblet opened the attack and soon had Reed in trouble. They removed both openers in quick succession and reduced Reed to 7-3 in no time. Cooper was removed for 8 and at 18-4 Reed needed a good stand. Roddi Liebenberg and Richard Barlow added a battling 27, before Liebenberg miss timed a short ball and was caught for 24. No else made double figures and the least 5 wickets went down for just 13 runs. A miserable day for Reed, but St. Margaretsbury’s young side deserve all the credit for fighting so hard defending such a low total.
