The sunniest and warmest day it had been for a while, a relatively dry pitch with a hint of turn and a dash of shape, runs and wickets were on offer all day. Linslade won the toss and elected to bat.

Stanley Johnson took an excellent caught and bowled in his first over, the batter having skied a beautiful length ball.

Wickets shared around all the bowlers, with Benjamin Mansfield taking 2-27 and taking a sharp catch in the deep, Lily Hall taking 2-23 thanks to an excellent catch by young Matthew Barons. The senior Reed bowlers had put in sterling effort, but a strong batting line up ensured Linslade set an imposing 326 off their 40 overs with many boundaries. Two of the Linslade batters made centuries, putting the pressure on Reed’s innings.

Wickets fell regularly as Reed attempted the chase, with Stanley Johnson impressing at No 3 with 20 off 35 and Benjamin Mansfield joint top scorer with 25, out stumped having survived an earlier stumping attempt. Bill Mansfield had a quick-fire 24 off 29 and Matthew Barons backed up his earlier excellent fielding with 25 off 29 but he ran out of partners as Reed were all out for 212.

The opposition were very supportive of the younger Reed members as they came into bat, but today Reed’s team fell short.