Reed III’s hosted Northwood Town II’s at Freman Oval for the second league game of the season. On winning the toss Reed elected to bowl. Joe Graves (10-1-42-1) bowled consistent pacey outswing picking up a wicket early on. George Garrott (10-1-44-1) took the other opener’s wicket just as he was getting in to his stride. A partnership developed between Haji (43) and Vanker (87*), but was broken when a skillful deflection onto the stumps, by Ian Roberts, found Haji out of his crease. Northwood Town continued to increase their total, but lost Palan (3), Kotetcha (22) and M. Patel (1) in the process. Khetia (29*) and Vanker finished the innings undefeated with Northwood Town posting a massive 274 for 6 from their 50 overs.
Reed’s response started well as Rob Willoughby (71) and Rhodri Hughes (39) plundered runs. Hughes was caught off the bowling of Kotetcha (9-1-61-2) and Peter Baker (0) fell quickly to Patel (10-1-30-2), bringing George Garrott to the crease, who freely played strokes and pushed the total on until Willoughby became Patel’s second victim. Mike Robertson (33) continued the support for Garrott as he struck boundaries to all parts of the ground, when Robertson fell, Matt Bowles (14) continued, however the nerves were beginning to set in. Garrott and Bowles both ran themselves out and Mas Naeem (10) after a brief flurry was bowled by Kotetcha. Ian Roberts (4) was also run out, and with the scores close, Joe Graves (7*) and Neil Haslam (0) were tasked with finishing the job. It was the youngster Graves who struck the final blow, beautifully dispatching a low full toss to the boundary to give Reed the victory.
Report submitted by Michael Robertson.
