Reed Fours entertained Preston Fours at The Freman Oval on Saturday 28th May. Skipper Lloyd Bowman called correctly and asked Preston to bat first.
The opening attack of left-armer Matt Yates (6-0-17-0) and the medium pace of Neil Haslam (8-1-23-0) bowled accurately and the Preston openers Maxwell and Newell found runs hard to come by, reaching only 58-0 in 15 overs. Having bowled his compliment Haslam gave way to Kieran Willoughby and Yates was replaced by Steve Hughes.
Although Willoughby (6-0-33-0) couldn’t find any consistent line and length in his spell, the batsman failed to punish him significantly. Preston had moved to 88 when Hughes (8-0-45-1) had Maxwell caught by Yates for 42. This brought the Preston skipper Saunders and he and Newell began to up the run rate.
Leg-spinner Toby Emes (6-0-39-2) had come on to replace Willoughby, and with the score on 139 he forced a mis-hit from Saunders and Bowman took the catch. Number Four Taylor stay at the crease didn’t last long as he was bowled emphatically by Sam Deville (6-1-32-1) and Emes took his second wicket bowling Holt for a duck. Preston were now 162-4 with overs running out. Newell passed his fifty and with Neale took Preston to 206-4 in their 40 overs. Probably 30 runs short on the good Freman wicket.
Reed opened their reply with Paul Garrott and Matt Yates. Both applied themselves to the task in hand taking no risks. Preston skipper Saunders was forced to change his bowlers on a regular basis. Garrott with his delicate touch around the field was now getting into his stride and he was more than ably supported by Yates who drove and cut the ball superbly. The score had reached 88 when Yates mistimed a shot off of the bowling of Maxwell (7-0-43-1) and was caught for 37.
This brought Sam Deville to the crease and he wasted no time in getting off the mark. He and Garrott punished anything lose and the Preston bowlers were finding the going hard, Garrott reached his 50. The score had reached 165 when Garrott was trapped in front lbw for 73 with a ball that kept low of Newell (4-1-16-1) Deville continued on his way to his half century and with Ben Mansfield took read to their target of 207 with no further mishaps and with a full two overs to spare. Deville was unbeaten on 73 and Mansfield unbeaten on 7.
Skipper Lloyd Bowman was elated with the victory. “With only 9 men for the vast majority of the game, the lads applied themselves well in the field and our bowlers didn’t let Preston post a challenging score. Our batting was brilliant and credit must go to Paul, Matt, Sam and Ben who saw us home”.
Reed travel to Potters Bar to face Old Owens next Saturday.
Report submitted by Neil Haslam.
