Reed’s 2nd XI went into the match needing a point to be
sure of staying up and left with all 30. Skipper Jason
Archer again won the toss and decided to bat first. It
didn’t look good when Baz Curtis was dismissed 3rd ball for
a duck. This brought Ed Garrott to crease to join Fergus
Martin. Both stood up well to the pace of Smith and didn’t
look in too much trouble until Smith managed to nip one
away and hit Martin’s off stump. This left Reed 21-2 from
11 overs.
Richard Johnson replaced Martin and hit two lovely fours
before chasing a wide one and being caught behind off the
bowling of Rhodes. At 32-3 the visitors must have thought
the divisional title was in their grasp and another victory
in sight. Mitchell Cooper along with Garrott had other
ideas and steadied the ship putting on 81 for the 4th
wicket. Garrott hitting some lovely drives through the
covers. Cooper happy to give Garrott the strike found the
gaps and rotated the strike well.
Maximum batting points looked on the cards when Cooper
smashed one back only for bowler Rhodes to stick out a foot
and deflect the ball onto the stumps leaving Garrott out of
his ground. He had looked in full control and a ton wasn’t
out of the question, but instead he was run out for 71. Ian
Fulk joined Cooper and in his very with his usual Brazilian
flare deserting him his stoutly scored 28 to take Reed to
153-5 with only 5 overs left. In a late flurry Reed tried
to up the run rate, but only lost wickets. 153-5 soon
became 165 and it was left to Peter Tidey and Jason Archer
to see the overs out and Reed to 167-9. Rhodes finished
with 4-42 from his mammoth 21 overs.
Broxbourne’s reply started slowly, but as Rhodes had turned
Reed’s innings the Broxbourne skipper, White, turned his
sides. He smashed one back at Andrew Emms who couldn’t hold
on, but in the process split the webbing on his bowling
hand and had to go off for stitches. This brought Rupert
Martin in to the attack and soon had the ball swinging.
Peter Tidey bowled Sargent for 1 and despite being down to
10 men Reed were up and running. White was bowled for
Martin in the next over and Broxourne were 21-2 going at
just over 1 an over.
Seven runs later Martin was at it again having Ferguson
caught by Johnson at mid on. Tidey not to be outdone had
the dangerous looking Smith caught by Cooper. The ball was
in the air for a long time, but the youngster showed great
composure to take the catch. Suddenly it was 38-5 and Reed
could sense and unlikely victory. A partnership of 31 with
Sivakumar bringing some discipline to the reply.
Tidey again broke through having Smith caught a slip for 12
and when Sivakumar chases a wide one from Richard Johnson
and was caught by Jack Tidey suddenly it was 77-7. That
soon became 9 down as Tidey took his 4th and 5th wicket in
two balls, but couldn’t complete the victory with a
hattrick. That was left to all round Garrott as he had
Davies bowled with his second delivery. Martin ended with
3-23 and Tidey 5-45 just pipping Rhodes to the bowling
honours on the day.
A defeat the Broxbourne will find hard to swallow, but 10
man Reed deserved the win.