By Tom Brown WITH a handful of games remaining, Reed remain at the top of the Saracens Herts League Division 2 despite suffering their first defeat of the season against a spirited Watford Town. After winning the toss, Reed s opening batsmen Baz Curtis

By Tom Brown

WITH a handful of games remaining, Reed remain at the top of the Saracens Herts League Division 2 despite suffering their first defeat of the season against a spirited Watford Town.

After winning the toss, Reed's opening batsmen Baz Curtis (14) and James Heslam (24) plundered early runs to take the score to a well-worked 38. But after a fantastic catch by Van de Ee, Heslam was soon heading back to the pavilion.

Curtis then fell caught in the covers, with Chris Jackson (6) following soon after. However, the introduction of the powerful Phil Frenay (70) steadied the home side's innings.

But as Frenay grew stronger, team mate Tom Fulk (10) grew frustrated with Watford's tight bowling and as a result was unfortunately dismissed with Reed on 85-5.

Frenay continued to occupy the crease and released some explosive shots. And assisted by Simon Jackson (44) and then William Clarke (30) Reed's score was accelerated to an innings of 222 all out.

Clarke (6-1-16-1) then opened the Reed bowling and took a wicket with just his second ball, with Tidey (13-3-52-1) removing Knox.

However, their dismissal brought Riaz (33) and Sen (90) into the action, with the latter finding the boundaries off all the Reed bowlers. And it took a special delivery to remove their opponents' main threat, and that came from Andrew Young (12.3-1-63-1) in his second spell.

Sharp (48) and Manzoor (19) continued to score runs and pushed Watford confidently towards the Reed total. Despite Emms taking three late wickets, it was too late as Watford won by three wickets and reached the Reed score in 44.1 overs.

Captain Heslam said: "We are of course disappointed to lose our first game of the season, but we remain on top, and despite the loss we were able to register good points. We have taken a lot from this defeat and it was encouraging to see our lower order get some decent time at the crease.