Reed 1st XI made a much better fist of their game against Totteridge Millhillians than they did against Potters Bar. Despite the overcast conditions, Tom Greaves decided to bat and the openers struggled to score as Smith and Wray bowled an accurate line. Nevertheless, most of the top order made a reasonable start with Tom himself top scoring. Once again though, he perished for 34 soon after nailing his first maximum. Mention must be made too for Under 15s Max Sanderson, who looked very much at home batting against a fine attack until he was unluckily run out for 11. However, the star turn was Totteridge’s left arm spinner, Iresh Saxena, who produced a master class of consistency, producing figures of 10-7-4-2. It was left to Sean Tidey (20) to bring up a total of 133 just before the 46 overs, allotted after a rain break, were up.
Totteridge looked to be strolling to victory at 70-1 despite another spell of tight bowling from Toby Fynn, but Mitchell Cooper (1-29) broke the partnership of Miles and Keeping and Rob Lankester rocked the visitors with two wickets in an over, finishing with 3-27, after an exciting spell causing the batsmen to play and miss repeatedly. However, even Ed Wharton couldn’t stop Totteridge’s crawl to victory, although he cleverly disposed of gun opener Ben Howgego caught by Greaves at silly mid on and bowled the dangerous Sam Smith just as he was starting to rack up the boundaries. His 9 overs contained 4 maidens and 2 wickets for a miserly 19 runs.
In the end, Totteridge won by 3 wickets with a couple of overs to spare, leaving Reed smarting with only 5 points again to show for a performance that deserved much more.
Match report submitted by Peter Wholley.
