REED saw their Herts League winning streak come to an end with a six wicket defeat against Old Albanians. With the influential Chris Jackson rested in preparation for the following day s National Cup game, Reed got off to the worst start possible with the

REED saw their Herts League winning streak come to an end with a six wicket defeat against Old Albanians.

With the influential Chris Jackson rested in preparation for the following day's National Cup game, Reed got off to the worst start possible with the in-form Baz Curtis being caught of the first ball of the game.

Reed struggled throughout their innings due to tight bowling and a demanding wicket to bat on.

Simon Jackson (20) and Andy Young (23) showed some resistance as Reed were bowled out for 121 in the 47th over.

Young (2-32) continued his great performance on the day by bowling a hostile spell of fast bowling in tandem with Pete Tidey.

OA's were 34-4 when their professional coach M Dale came to the wicket. His unbroken partnership of 90 with J Smithers saw the visitors home with over 20 overs to spare.

Skipper Simon Jackson said: "We batted poorly and nine of our players were caught out. The wicket was not easy to bat on, however the difference in class of their coach showed when he batted.

"Andy bowled very fast and caused lots of problems to the batsman and when we got them four down we thought we might have a chance."

n An unbroken partnership of 173 for the third wicket gave a depleted Ashwell side their seventh consecutive victory in Cambridgeshire Division 2SA as Romsey Town were beaten in a high-scoring game.

Romsey got first use of an excellent batting wicket and a series of useful partnerships enabled them to score quickly without ever entirely cutting loose.

Mortlock (80) was the mainstay of the Romsey innings, with the Ashwell bowling and outfielding holding up well in the searing heat.

A testing new ball spell from Martin Talks (1-46) went largely unrewarded, with the wickets that fell being shared around - Mark Griffin taking 2-47 and Jon Simons 2-53, as Romsey closed at 240-7.

Ashwell's reply was always at, or above the required scoring rate, and after the loss of Talks (15) and Young (24), Martyn Deal continued his good early season form with an unbeaten 90, and in partnership with Jonathan Merrell (81 not out) saw Ashwell home with few alarms, and more than five overs to spare, at 244-2.

# Reed under-15s reached the Hertfordshire League semi-finals with a 17-run victory against Hertford II.

Reed batted first and scored freely to reach 155 from their 20 overs, with Fergus Martin 53 (retired) and Ed Garrott (39) the main contributors. Osgood was the pick of the bowling four overs and finishing with 0-12.

Hertford made a good fist of their reply, Elliot making 50 retired and King 24, but all the Reed bowlers stuck to their task, and with some good out cricket restricted Hertford to 138.

Ollie Smith was the pick of the bowlers taking 2-19 from his four overs.

n Reed under-11s continued their good season with a comfortable eight wicket against Hatfield.

Put in to bat Hatfield made a good start mainly due to erratic bowling from several of the Reed bowlers.

After the departure of Bigley for 11, runs off the bat were at a premium but Reed's generosity with continuing wayward bowling eventually contributed 55 extras to Hatfield's total of 91-3.

Reeds reply got off to a solid start and a mature and forceful innings of 33 (retired) from William Heslam set them up for the win.

Oliver Benham took over where Heslam left off to finish with 30 not out as Reed cruised to 92-2 in 14.5 overs, Cochrane 1-9 being the most successful of Hatfield's eight bowlers.