The 1st XI made it 4 wins in 5 games and moved into 3rd place in the Herts Championship with another convincing win this time over previously 3rd placed Hoddesdon.
On a green-ish wicket due to the heavy rain of the previous two days Reed won the toss and elected to bowl. Hoddesdon got off to a decent start though with Hertfordshire batsman Rob Walters looking in good form. However when Jack Tidey (8-2-27) again made an important breakthrough dismissing Walters for 25 the run rate began to slow. However, the home side continued to build and at 102-4 off 29 overs largely thanks to 41 from Leat they had a reasonable platform on a tricky wicket. Alex Mutucumarana (10-1-29) and Toby Fynn (10-0-39) bowled decent spells during this period for Reed. The introduction of spinners Tom Greaves (8-2-39), Phil Lill (10-3-21) and Reece Fitzgerald (4-0-17) then put Reed on top reducing the home side to 144-7 off 42 overs. Lill returning particularly impressive figures. Although a recovery took place to 185-8 in 50 overs a run rate of under 4 runs per over was good news for the Reed run chase.
Reeds reply got off to another solid start as James and Will Heslam got through a tricky new ball period to take the score to 35-0 after 8 overs. Although Will Heslam (10) then went looking to score, this brought Greaves to the crease and he immediately looked to punish anything loose as Hoddesdon turned to spin but with a little less control than Reed’s and the powerful Greaves (48) supported by Heslam (33) took Reed along to 101-1 off 22 overs to look well on course for victory. Although Heslam and Greaves then departed in fairly quick succession the classy Chris Jackson and hard hitting Stuart Smith took Reed to the brink of victory before Smith fell for an excellent run a ball 29. This left Mutucumarana to join Jackson for the winning runs to be hit by Jackson with 10 overs to spare who finished on another important 45 not out for the team.
Reed host Chorleywood on Saturday still with some hope of aiming for 2nd place or at least a top half finish.
