Reed I 102 all out lost to Broxbourne 187-7 by 85 runs REED I saw their promotion chances ended against Broxbourne at the weekend after going down to an 85-run defeat. The loss means they will have to try and battle their way out of Division Two once agai

Reed I 102 all out lost to Broxbourne 187-7 by 85 runs

REED I saw their promotion chances ended against Broxbourne at the weekend after going down to an 85-run defeat.

The loss means they will have to try and battle their way out of Division Two once again in the 2010 season.

Reed II beat Broxbourne by 81 runs

REED II went into the match needing a point to be sure of staying up and left with all 30.

Skipper Jason Archer again won the toss and decided to bat first. It didn't look good when Baz Curtis was dismissed third ball for a duck.

This brought Ed Garrott to crease to join Fergus Martin.

Both stood up well to the pace of Smith and didn't look in too much trouble until Smith managed to nip one away and hit Martin's off stump.

This left Reed 21-2 from 11 overs. Richard Johnson replaced Martin and hit two lovely fours before chasing a wide one and being caught behind off the bowling of Rhodes.

At 32-3 the visitors must have thought the divisional title was in their grasp and another victory in sight.

Mitchell Cooper, along with Garrott, had other ideas and steadied the ship putting on 81 for the fourth wicket.

Maximum batting points looked on the cards when Cooper smashed one back only for bowler Rhodes to stick out a foot and deflect the ball onto the stumps leaving Garrott out of his ground.

Ian Fulk joined Cooper and stoutly scored 28 to take Reed to 153-5 with only five overs left.

In a late flurry Reed tried to up the run rate, but only lost wickets.

It was left to Peter Tidey and Jason Archer to see the overs out and Reed to 167-9.

Rhodes finished with 4-42 from his mammoth 21 overs.

Peter Tidey bowled Sargent for one and, despite being down to 10 men through an injury, Reed were up and running.

White was bowled by Martin in the next over and Broxourne were 21-2 going at just over one an over. Seven runs later Martin was at it again having Ferguson caught by Johnson at mid-on.

Tidey, not to be outdone, had the dangerous looking Smith caught by Cooper.

Tidey again broke through having Smith caught a slip for 12 and when Sivakumar chased a wide one from Richard Johnson and was caught by Tidey suddenly it was 77-7.

That soon became nine down as Tidey took his two more wickets in two balls.

Garrott got the final wicket as he had Davies bowled with his second delivery.

Reed III lost to Welwyn Garden City IV by two wickets

REED III put up a good fight in a close fought game against third-placed Welwyn Garden City IV.

The hosting captain won the toss and inserted Reed. Opening the batting were Aiden Swain and Will Heslam.

Both looked in fine touch despite both being absent from the crease for several weeks.

The pair made 50 together before Swain (25) fell.

Heslam continued with some fine shots before being caught, unfortunately four runs shy of another 50.

Contributions came from Maseeh Naeem and Paul Garrott, both scoring 15, but another strong batting performance from all-rounder Richard Robertson (53) led Reed to their final total of 201-8 from 47 overs.

For Welwyn, the opening pair of Russell and Day put Reed under pressure before Christian Martin (7-1-33-2) made the breakthrough removing Russell (31).

Soon after, R Robertson removed Day (31) from the other end.

However, each wicket was hard earned as many of the opposition made contributions, but with wickets from Martin and Robertson (12-1-53-3) the win was up for grabs for both sides.

Julian Fynn (14-0-56-2) in a returning spell also took vital wickets including running out a jumpy number nine when the pressure was on.

Last year when these two sides met Welwyn required 12 from the last over with one wicket remaining and lost.

This time however Reed required two wickets and the hosts only two runs from the last over.

Reed lost by two wickets but were by no means disgraced.