Reed II XI travelled to Flamstead on Saturday hoping to make it 3 wins on the bounce. It was a rare occasion where not a single member of the experienced side had played cricket there before, and perhaps never have to play there again if they continue winning.
Reed won the toss and inserted the opposition, hoping to capitalise on what from their recent results appeared to a be a fallible Flamstead batting line up. Reed were soon in to their stride reducing the home team to 25-5 with excellent opening spells from Mitchell Cooper (finishing with 4 wickets) and Jack Caine (2 wickets). As the ball softened, batting became markedly easier and Flamstead rallied to post a semi respectable total of 145 all out despite the effort of Matthew Bowles (2 wickets) and a wicket each for Julien Fynn and Ed Garrott.
Despite the apparently manageable target, given how the ball had behaved at the beginning of the Flamstead innings, Reed knew that the result was far from a forgone conclusion. Reed lost Frenay early but Rich Barlow, passing 30 yet again, and Chris Jackson (50 not out) steadied the ship with an excellent partnership. When Barlow was run-out with Reed looking comfortable, there was a bit of a wobble, with various batsmen briefly getting in and then out again but once Cooper joined Jackson it took just a few lusty blows for the former to wrap up the game and a 5 wicket win for Reed.
Match report submitted by Phil Frenay.
