Skipper Baz Curtis lost the toss and Watford Town’s skipper had no hesitation in putting Reed into bat on a green looking wicket. Fergus Martin and Curtis opened the batting and looked quite comfortable against the opening bowlers. Ali was getting some seam movement, but the extra pace of Khali wasn’t causing too many problems. Curtis was just getting into his stride before he was caught behind for 14 and Reed were 24-1 in 7 overs. Matt Bowles joined Martin and the pair had added 13 before Martin was well caught in the slips for 11.
The score had reached 42 when Connolly who had replaced Ali struck for the first time. He had Johnson adjudged LBW. He quickly followed that up bowling Bowles for 13 and Blissett for a duck and it was suddenly 45-5. Phil Freney and Marcus Baker looked like they were beginning to rebuild and had put on 27 before Connolly struck again.
Shepherd took over from Khali and he also got in the action quickly. From 72-6 their was another collapse. He reduced the home side to 75-8. Keiran Wheeler and Kallum Ward decided putting bat to ball as the best answer. Wheeler hit a quick 9 before being caught. Peter Tidey followed the same bat to ball route and hit a quick 15 and got Reed over 100. It was left to Shepherd to bowl Ward for 9 and Reed were 107 all out.
Watford went out for a tricky 40 minutes before tea and it was vital that Reed picked up some quick wickets. They got a dream start when Wheeler struck first ball. After some quick padding up Khali came to the wicket, but he was quickly removed after a smart catch by Fergus Martin in the gully. At 6-2 it looked like the Reed might have a sniff of a chance. After tea skipper Felton and Simon Sampat made a solid progress. They had reached 74 without many problems before Wheeler managed to remove Sampat for a fine 36. Shah joined Felton and looked to have got Watford home, but Kallum Ward struck to remove Shah for 10. Fergus Martin suddenly struck twice more with only 1 run added. Suddenly it was 101-6. Could the impossible happen? No, Felton held his nerve and hit the winning boundary to see his side to 30 points. Reed picking up only 6.
