Reed III’s beat the weather but succumbed to an agonising defeat at Hertford IV on Saturday, despite fine performances from young bowler Joe Graves and experienced batsman Maseeh Naeem. The hosts batted first and made a solid start through Horton and Timms, but Joe Graves (10-5-20-3) soon found his rhythm as he began to elicit significant movement off of the pitch. It took a glorious delivery from Graves to remove Timms (5), who then followed up soon after by having Patel (4) caught in the covers by Paul Garrott. A 40 run partnership followed but it was Graves who again managed to make things happen for Reed, finding the outside edge of opener Horton (34). Jason Pallett, who had replaced Neil Haslam (10-1-43-0) then removed Marques for 19 as Reed started to get a foothold in the game, as Hertford found themselves 85-4. However the Hertford middle order soon restored control for the hosts as Kildare and Clarke carefully negotiated the bowling of the returning Julien Fynn (6-2-34-0) and skipper Mikey Robertson to build a solid 70 run partnership. Robertson then turned back to spin, as Pallett and Bowles were charged with breaking the dangerous partnership before the game got away from Reed. Kilare (57) passed his half century, but his innings was halted as Bowles found his outside edge and ‘keeper Naeem held on to a sharp catch behind the stumps. Pallett then had Clarke (34) stumped as the Hertford approached the 200 mark. Pallett (10-0-46-3) and Bowles (7-0-35-2) created a number of further chances, but only came away with one further wicket each as the Hertford batsmen chanced their arm towards the end of the innings. Fynn and Bowles combined to run out [...]