Reed’s Third Eleven put up a good fight in a close fought game against third placed Welwyn Garden City IV’s. The hosting captain won the toss and inserted Reed. Opening the batting were Aiden Swain and Will Heslam. Both looked in fine touch despite both being absent from the crease for several weeks, the pair made 50 together before Swain (25) fell. Heslam continued with some fine shots before being caught, unfortunately 4 runs shy of another 50.
Contributions came from Maseeh Naeem and Paul Garrott, both scoring 15, but another strong batting performance from all -rounder Richard Robertson (53) led Reed to their final total of 201 for 8 from 47 overs.
For Welwyn the opening pair of Russell and Day put Reed under pressure before Christian Martin (7-1-33-2) made the breakthrough removing Russell (31). Soon after R. Robertson removed Day (31) from the other end. However, each wicket was hard earned as many of the opposition made contributions, but with wickets from Martin and Robertson (12-1-53-3) the win was up for grabs for both sides. Julian Fynn (14-0-56-2) in a returning spell also took vital wickets including running out a jumpy number 9 when the pressure was on. Last year when these two sides met Welwyn required 12 from the last over with one wicket remaining and lost. This time however Reed required two wickets and the hosts only two runs from the last over. Reed lost by two wickets but were by no means disgraced by the third placed side.
