REED captain James Heslam praised his side s fielding after they moved a step closer to promotion with victory over Broxbourne. Heslam said: It was a good win and probably our best fielding performance of the season. There was a big home support today

REED captain James Heslam praised his side's fielding after they moved a step closer to promotion with victory over Broxbourne.

Heslam said: "It was a good win and probably our best fielding performance of the season.

"There was a big home support today and I was worried some of the players might be nervous as the pressure grew.

"But we took our chances and deserved to win."

After the heavy rain of last week, it was only thanks to sterling work from groundsmen Richard Robertson and Jason Archer that the game went ahead.

Broxbourne won the toss, and put Reed into bat.

Baz Curtis and skipper Heslam took the score to 38 before Curtis was caught at point.

This brought Chris Jackson to the middle, and he and Heslam formed what turned out to be a match-winning partnership of 86.

Heslam passed 50 for the second successive match before being caught on 63.

Jackson soon followed, lbw for 38 with the score on 136.

With the ball moving around for the bowlers, Reed could have wobbled, but thanks to a controlled 30 from Tom Fulk, and late contributions from Simon Jackson (8), and Marcus Martin (19), they reached a respectable total of 213-6.

Relegation-threatened Broxbourne attacked from the off, and reached 29 fairly comfortably before Peter Tidey struck, removing Dawson for 16.

Three more wickets followed quickly for just 20 runs, leaving Broxbourne on 49-4.

Tidey continued to bowl well in tandem with William Clarke, and when he collected his fifth wicket Reed were in sight of victory with the visitors on 89-6.

However, Broxbourne stuck to their task doggedly, and hit several boundaries before a great run out from Jackson broke their rhythm.

After this, Reed wrapped up the innings quickly, with Ed Garrott picking up the final wicket.

With just two matches left to play, Heslam isconfident his team will hold their nerve and clinch promotion.

He said: "Our promotion chances are in our own hands and hopefully we can cap a great season and go up.