AFTER beating Royston in the final of the Keatley Cup last week, James Heslam s side returned to league action on Saturday – but it was draw number four against Northwood. With their opponents keen to maximise their batting points, Reed were put in the

AFTER beating Royston in the final of the Keatley Cup last week, James Heslam's side returned to league action on Saturday - but it was draw number four against Northwood.

With their opponents keen to maximise their batting points, Reed were put in the field on a wet surface.

And the juice of the wicket was evident with William Clarke (10-1-25-2) and Peter Tidey (13-5-41-1) making batting life difficult for the Northwood openers.

And it was Clarke who made the breakthrough, sending Hussey (9) packing with the help of wicket keeper Simon Jackson. Clarke then struck again dismissing Richardson's (13) defence with a yorker.

Andrew Emms (16-7-37-4), then removed the Northwood skipper S Noach (4) thanks to a sharp leg side catch from Jackson, and then saw off Ackroyd (45) with the help of Heslam.

Emms continued the rout by taking the wickets of Wise (18) and Mason (19), while Tidey returned to help remove R Noach (22) and Richard Johnson (6.1-1-24-3) mopped up the Northwood tail.

The Hillingdon-based club finished on 178 off their 50.1 overs.

Baz Curtis (69) led the Reed reply, and his blistering trademark off drives over the top caused the Northwood fielders a number of problems.

After Tom Fulk (0) went, Heslam joined Curtis, and the pair soon built a partnership of 58, before the Reed captain was caught behind off Reeve.

With the rain coming down fast, the match lost 10 overs, which added pressure on the Reed run rate.

Marcus Martin (11) joined Curtis and imposed himself with a crunching off drive to open his account, but Curtis, trying a delicate cut shot off left-arm spinner Latchman gifted Masen a catch with the gloves.

Then when Martin went after a sharp off cutter from S Noach, with Chris Shorrock (2) following after he was stumped off Latchman, Reed were languishing on 135-7.

Simon Jackson (3) tried his best, and was unlucky to play the ball on to his stumps off S Noach, which brought Emms to the crease.

He struck a beautiful boundary before being joined by Tidey to increase the momentum.

And he was successful, striking three boundaries to reach 14 in his first league innings of the season.

When he was dismissed, Clarke (12 not out) joined Emms, but the latter quickly became another victim of a clever S Noach ball and Graham Wilson was left to support Clarke.

The pair went for a draw, looking to reach the bonus point benchmarks of 140-155 runs.

Clarke managed to drag the score to 157-9, and secured the extra point by striking a thumping drive off Noach with the final ball of the innings.

Reed captain Heslam said: "It was a shame that the rain came down because I felt that we were in with a chance of winning.

"The loss of overs put our batsmen under pressure and they were forced to play shots that they wouldn't normally have played in these circumstances.

"Our bowlers stuck to their task well, and just like the other draws we have had this season, we came very close to securing the win.