Reed Seconds made the trip to London Colney on Saturday. The hosts won the toss and elected to bat and they began quickly punishing any loose bowling. The big hitting Raja fell to a brilliant gully catch from Matt Bowles off Owen Hughes (8-0-46-1) for 29 with the score on 35. It didn’t check the hosts’ momentum as they reached 100 when Chris Jackson snaffled a smart slip catch off Will Archer (9-0-54-1), Jack Caine (9-1-33-1) added Reed’s third wicket and at 108 for 3 the match seemed evenly poised. The London Colney skipper Hadley and the opener Zeiderman rebuilt until Hadley became Matt Bowles’s first wicket (9.2-1-44-4), another good catch from Jackson. Reed did well to stem the runs in the final overs, Karl Ward (10-1-43-1) bowled well, though his figures didn’t do him justice, Charlie Walters chipped in with two late wickets (4-0-24-2) as Reed dismissed the hosts for 244 in the last of their 50 overs, denying them full batting points by just one run in the process.
Reed set off quickly with Robertson and Caine opening the reply, Robertson was given LBW with the score on 15, and Jackson joined Caine and the pair punished any loose bowling and ran well between the wickets. Jackson’s luck ran out as he played a ball that bounced back on to his stumps after having made 21. Last week’s hero Walters survived only three balls before playing down the wrong line to be out for 0. Meanwhile Caine was putting himself into the anchor role but again bad luck came Reed’s way as he was caught off a leading edge for 28, though he did deserve more.
This led to Reed falling away as they tried hard to regroup and they lost their last six wickets in just 9.1 overs subsiding to 87 all out. London Colney winning by 157 runs. Reed picked up 10 points.
Match Report submitted by Neil Haslam.
