Reeds fourth eleven continued their 2010 league campaign with another strong win in spite of horrendous conditions. Play started during a small spell when the weather held off but soon drizzle fell and remained over the Freeman College pitch. Reed’s captain Peter Baker won the toss and decided to bat first against the Wormely visitors. Showing resilience and supreme skill the opening pair of P. Baker and Paul Garrott made the best possible start for Reed finding no trouble in making runs, forcing the opposing captain to frequently rotate his bowlers. It was clear to see that Wormely did not want to keep on playing but the relentless drizzle did not get too heavy for play to stop and so the young side persisted, but it is in this disheartened mood that mistakes are made in the field and much to their annoyance there were many. P. Baker pipped P. Garrott to a half century as the pair went pass the hundred. They had smashed the previous first wicket stand when P. Baker was run out by S. Tutin off his own bowling for 72 with the score on 142. Baker was then replaced by his son Marcus J.E. Baker who picked up where his father left off and made runs easily. Garrott made a partnership of 71 with the younger Baker as the pair went pass the 200 mark and most importantly bought up his maiden century safe in the knowledge that he had taken Reed to a very strong score. The declaration came after 36 overs with Reed on 213 for 1, P. Garrott 100 not out and M.J.E. Baker 37 not out.
Wormely were put on the back foot straight away when Chris West (4-0-32-1) knocked back Gore’s (0) middle stump, which bought in their captain at number 3. C. Jones began to worry Reed as he hit the ball firmly for several boundaries and quickly went pass 50 and with surplus overs from Reeds innings an upset was perfectly possible, fortunately veteran bowler Ian Roberts bowled him for 56. Reed then went through the rest of the order as Roberts (10-0-23-4) and Alan Ward (9-0-47-4) competed with one another for leading wicket tally. Dominic McComish was rewarded for his patience throughout the day with one for eight removing the final wicket with the visitors shy by 68 runs. Will Kirby (7-0-12-0) was very unlucky not pick up a wicket but there were catches from Chris West, Peter Bradford and two from Peter Baker in the gully.
