It was a case of finger nails being bitten to the quick in this match at The Green on Saturday.
Hoddesdon won the toss and put the home team into bat. Reed found runs hard to come by on a slow pitch. Ed Wharton was the first wicket to fall bowled in the 7th over with the score on 12. The accurate bowling of the visitors continued to dry up the Reed scoring but any further wickets had to wait to the 17th over when Will Heslam fell with the score on 42. Wickets then fell regularly for the hosts and with James Heslam’s dismissal, Reed were 81 for 5 with just over 12 overs left.
Enter Mitchell Cooper who took an immediate liking to the Hoddesdon spinners, he hit 54 in 50 balls with 4 fours and four sixes in a 63-run partnership with Rich Wharton which brought a measure of respectability to Reed’s final score of 151 for 7 off their 45 overs.
Hoddesdon set off quickly in their reply reaching 59 for 1 in their first ten overs. Toby Fynn (9-0-44-1) taking the wicket of Hoddesdon skipper Walters. A partnership of 54 between Broodryk and Clarke was eventually broken by Karl Ward (9-1-33-3), and within four overs the match had been changed as the visitors fell to 88 for 5. Skipper Tom Greaves (9-1-32-4) extracted turn and bounce on the now drying pitch. The collapse continued and Hoddesdon had fallen to 128 for 9. Reed sensed a marvellous victory.
It was the visitors now finding runs hard to come by. Sean Tidey (6-0-9-0) passing the edge of the bat on numerous occasions. The pressure was palpable. Eventually after fifteen overs of knife edge cricket, Hoddesdon finally hit the winning runs to win by just one wicket.
A great advert for cricket and despite defeat Reed again showing that they can live with life in the Premier Division.
RESULT: REED 151 FOR 7 (45 OVERS) (8 POINTS) LOST TO HODDESDON 154 FOR 9 (42.2 OVERS) (25 POINTS) BY 1 WICKET.
Match Report submitted by Neil Haslam.
