REED were held to a frustrating draw against Northwood on Saturday despite dominating from start to finish.

They were left to rue some unfortunate fielding after dropping a number of catches that would have given Reed the victory their excellent batting deserved.

It was a frustrating end to what had been a good week for Reed, following their Keatley Cup final victory over Elmdon the previous Wednesday at Therfield.

Skipper James Heslam and Tom Greaves (20) got them off to another good start by putting on 52 for the first wicket in 10 overs before Greaves was first to head back to the pavillion.

The loss of wickets all throughout the Reed innings did not ease up as Heslam provided the batsmen with a stern test.

Heslam had good partnerships with Chris Jackson (17), Ed Garrott (23), Will Dobson (20) and Simon Jackson. Heslam scored 124 off 116 balls, including 20 4s.

An improvising 31* from Lee Johson saw Reed declare on 255 in their 51 overs.

Reed bowled well throughout the Northwood innings and regularly took wickets. Opening bowler Graham Wilson took 5-33 in 14 overs, before Reed turned to spin a bid to utilise the dry wicket.

Dobson (2-18) bowled superbly from one end and from the other end Heslam shuffled his other bowlers.

Reed had Northwood 49-6 before the opposition scratched their way to 121-9 with 10 overs left.

This bought in Dhanatunge to the wicket who, without doubt, was not a number 11 and he and his captain tried to bat out the rest of the game.

In this 10 over period, Reed dropped four tricky catches but Northwood dug in well to claim the draw.

Only Lewis (53) showed any kind of resistance for the visitors. Heslam said afterwards: “I was disappointed not to win but the scorebook shows how much we outplayed them.

“We got six more points than them which is always a bonus and it was a shame that we just did not take the catches at the end.

“We are away to high-flyers Flitwick next week, which should test us but I think we will be able to give them a very good game with the form we are currently in.”