REED narrowly won their 40-over friendly match against Elmdon by 12 runs on Sunday.

Elmdon won the toss and on a pitch that had been enlivened by recent rain, put Reed into bat and openers Tom Greaves and Fergus Martin were quickly into their stride.

Greaves in particular played a large number of shots, and inside nine overs the pair had reached their 50 partnership.

At 63 Greaves innings of 37 came to its conclusion, when he was caught at extra cover, off the bowling of Rock.

Karl Ward then joined Martin, but he was quickly dismissed by Reeves, caught at backward point, for 0, and Ed Blissett came to the crease.

Unfortunately for Reed, they now lost Martin, for a well constructed 37, when he surprisingly clipped an innocuous full toss into the hands of square leg.

Blissett was now in partnership with Jack Tidey, and the Reed captain continued to play the Elmdon attack with relative ease, picking up boundaries as Tidey sought to settle in.

However when the score had reached 104, Blissett was inexplicably adjudged lbw for 24.

Reed’s problems were compounded soon after, when Tidey was dismissed for 2, leaving their total at 109-5.

The fall of the fifth wicket brought together the young pairing of Sean Tidey and Mitchell Cooper and their partnership quickly grew, as Tidey, in particular, was playing some excellent shots.

Tidey raced past 50 and both he and Cooper now took advantage of some poor bowling by an Elmdon attack which had wilted under the batsmen’s onslaught.

Tidey ended the innings 103*, while Cooper made a creditable 36 as Reed finished on 257.

Jack Tidey and Rupert Martin opened the bowling for Reed after tea, and Martin quickly had Elmdon in difficulty when he dismissed Gale for 0 and the Badcock for 4 before Tidey clean-bowled Mellick for 0.

Turner launched a counterattack, playing some powerful shots, but he was soon to lose his partner Adams to Martin for 0.

This left the Elmdon in disarray, but Reeves and Turner then set about stemming the tide and the latter soon reached his half century before he was well caught at deep midwicket off Greaves.

This brought A Gale to the middle and he and Reeves soon accelerated the scoring rate.

Reeves reached his 50 as the score climbed rapidly as Blissett re-introduced his two fast bowlers to apply more pressure.

The gamble paid off, as the run-rate slowed and, in trying to increase the scoring, Reeves was dismissed by Ward for 72.

Tidey now returned and bowled well, ending with figures of 2-14 off eight overs as Elmdon finished on 245-9.