Due to limited availability and two late call offs from higher sides on Friday, a weakened Reed 4s took on Rebourn 4s. It was to the credit of the club’s youth structure that Reed fielded a full 11. Skipper Rob Willoughby lost the toss and was asked to field.
After initial tight overs from openers Giblin (0-23) and Conley, it soon became apparent that Reed were due a long afternoon in the field. Rebourn’s opener started to score with ease and in the end scored 163, after being run out. Before this Coldicott-Stevens (0-23), Childs (0-34) and Ward (0-53) found it difficult to get wickets against the solid openers. A change in the pace of bowling with Willoughby (2- 62) coming on bought the first wicket. Willoughby’ s second was thanks to a sharp catch from Moody keeping for the first time in senior cricket. Rice(0-43) bowled well and Conley (1-36) managed to pick up a wicket in his second spell. Redbourn finished on 279 for 4 after44.5 overs.
In reply young Owen Hughes opened with Garrott but was out for a duck. This brought Moody to the crease. Moody played the good deliveries straight and then punished the bad balls to the boundary with ease. He finished on 47 for a finely constructed innings for anybody let alone a 14 year old. Garrott was out for 36 and Ward scored a good 37 on his return to the side. Several other batsmen reveived ducks but Bowman (35) and Giblin (31) managed to get Reed over 170 for their maximum batting points. Reed finished on 227 all out, to eventually lose the game.
