A frustrated fourth eleven had to come away from their fixture against Stevenage with a draw. Reed batted first and soon found themselves in trouble losing two cheap wickets, but the hard hitting Marcus J.E. Baker made 46 in 18 balls to give the Reed total substance with eleven fours. However, he failed to stay past the eighth over and Reed were once again in hot water at 59 for 3. Reed were then bolstered with an impressive maiden half-century from Robert Willoughby (70) who made essential partnerships with Sam Deville (20), James Bloor (17) and brother Kieren Willoughby (26) all of whom played some fantastic shots to up the Reed total. Some lower order runs from Ian Roberts (21) took Reed to 246 all out.
After a stubborn opening partnership between C. Welch (15) and C. Court (8) Reed began to take wickets as they worked through the young Stevenage side. James Bloor (8-0-34-2) struck twice in an over to make the initial breakthrough, Sam Deville (6-1-16-2) took two in two balls and Ian Roberts (8-3-12-4) once again showed his talents. Both Matt Giblin (11-4-10-0) and Luke Cox (5-1-12-0) impressed with the ball by keeping the run rate low but were unlucky not to pick up wickets. Despite their best efforts Reed could not remove the final wickets for the win as Stevenage ended their innings on 115 for 8. There were catches from I. Roberts, P.Baker and S. Deville and special mention must go to the fielding of Kieren Willoughby and Luke Cox who both showed great energy and commitment. Reed come away with eighteen points and remain in fourth place in the division but their performance certainly deserved a victory.
