A frustrated fourth eleven had to come away from their
fixture against Stevenage with a draw. Reed batted first
and soon found themselves in trouble losing two cheap
wickets, but the hard hitting Marcus J.E. Baker made 46 in
18 balls to give the Reed total substance with eleven
fours. However, he failed to stay past the eighth over and
Reed were once again in hot water at 59 for 3. Reed were
then bolstered with an impressive maiden half-century from
Robert Willoughby (70) who made essential partnerships with
Sam Deville (20), James Bloor (17) and brother Kieren
Willoughby (26) all of whom played some fantastic shots to
up the Reed total. Some lower order runs from Ian Roberts
(21) took Reed to 246 all out.
After a stubborn opening partnership between C. Welch (15)
and C. Court (8) Reed began to take wickets as they worked
through the young Stevenage side. James Bloor (8-0-34-2)
struck twice in an over to make the initial breakthrough,
Sam Deville (6-1-16-2) took two in two balls and Ian
Roberts (8-3-12-4) once again showed his talents. Both Matt
Giblin (11-4-10-0) and Luke Cox (5-1-12-0) impressed with
the ball by keeping the run rate low but were unlucky not
to pick up wickets. Despite their best efforts Reed could
not remove the final wickets for the win as Stevenage ended
their innings on 115 for 8. There were catches from I.
Roberts, P.Baker and S. Deville and special mention must go
to the fielding of Kieren Willoughby and Luke Cox who both
showed great energy and commitment. Reed come away with
eighteen points and remain in fourth place in the division
but their performance certainly deserved a victory.