Reed III faced Pinner at the Freman Oval. Pinner won the toss and elected to bowl first on which looked a tricky wicket for batsmen due to the rain the day before.
Richard Barlow and Paul Garrott opened the batting for Reed and tried to blunt the new ball attack of Pinner on a difficult wicket to start. However, the excellent bowling of Carter (9-3-28-2) got Richard Barlow out early and Paul Garrott soon followed for 14. Leaving Reed 19 for 2, Rob Willoughby and Marcus Baker started building a partnership taking the score to 55 until Marcus was out caught at point for 22. This brought Mike Robertson to the crease that started to build a partnership with Rob Willoughby with both punishing the bad ball of the spinners. They put on 51 before Rob Willoughby was bowled for a well played 40. This brought Skipper Rhodri Hughes to the crease that decided to up the tempo with Mike Robertson, running well and some big hits from Robertson. They put on 46 in 5 overs until Rhodri was bowled for 13, taking the score to 152-5 off 35. Mike Robertson then followed in the next over for an excellent 60. Reed then collapsed losing wickets cheaply leaving then 171-9 with 6 overs to bat. However, Joe Graves and Jason Archer built a solid unbroken partnership of 34 for the last wicket, punishing the bad bowl, taking Reed to 205-9 off 45. That looked a very competitive score at the halfway point.
Reed’s bowling started off well with Owen Hughes (6-0-18-2) bowling Fells in the first over. However, Carter and Dixtt started to rebuild with Carter taking a liking to Joe Graves (9-0-37-0). Owen then got Carter in an unlucky way with the ball rolling back onto his stumps from a defensive shot. But Dixtt and Khan started to build a solid partnership and got Pinner 98-2 off 22. Then Will archer (9-1-23-3) picked up Khan first ball after drinks. Then a run out from Rhodri Hughes soon after left Pinner 105-4. Will Archer and Jason Archer (8.4-3-13-4) bowled brilliantly in tandem picking up wickets frequently with some good catches by Reed. This concluded bowling Pinner out for 133 with Reed picking up the victory from a good team performance.
Match report submitted by Rhodri Hughes.
