Reed CC 2nd XI began their second season in the Saracens Herts League Division 4B with a hard-fought and close victory in an excellent game of cricket away at Northwood Town CC. Reed won the toss and chose to bowl. NTCC got off to a decent start despite good spells from Karl Ward (3-54) and Peter Tidey (2-32) and by the drinks break were looking on for a sizable total. Matt Bowles (2-35) and Matt Sampson (0-23) had other ideas however as they spun their web to reign the NTCC batsmen in. NTCC managed to forge some good partnerships towards the end of their innings and ended up with a competitive total of 217-7.
Reed’s response got off to a poor start with Phil Frenay (4) and Ed Garrott (6) both going cheaply. This brought together Richard Johnson and Sampson who batted carefully to forge an invaluable partnership of 115, and just as the game looked as though it was Reed’s for the taking Johnson (67) was unfortunately run out and Sampson (47) quickly followed. Reed needed to increase the run rate and up stepped Michael Robertson who smashed 43 in no time, but when he departed a further 8 runs were required with 3 overs and 2 wickets to spare. Bowles (7*) and Tim Tidey (4*) took their time and picked off the bad balls and saw the team home with 2 balls to spare in an enthralling encounter.
Report submitted by Phil Frenay.
