Back to earth with a bump after the herculean efforts of the week before. Reed opted to bowl first and soon proved to be a good decision. Both Preston openers Wharton and Morecroft were back in the pavilion quickly and only aussie Josh Wigginton made any real score making 33 before being bowled. The rest of the Preston innings just didn’t fire and Preston fell for a measly 164 all out in 38 overs. Reed’s Tidy taking home figures of 4/45. Reed set about the chase in a determined fashion knowing they had Preston where they wanted them. A solid 51 from William Heslam set the platform and all the Reed top order chipped in to reach 164/5 in only 26 overs.

Different story as Preston 2’s hosted Reed 2nd X1 and took home a 71 run win. Preston made 222 in 48 overs with Pete Gooden making a superb 95 before falling just shy of century. A mixed Reed bowling attack was punished at times but young Josh Heslam did very well taking 3 / 37 in an impressively mature spell of bowling for his young age. Reed were never really in the chase though, losing regular wickets. Only the long experience of James Heslam (37) who made any real potential threat to Preston’s total before falling himself off the bowling of another experienced head, Ash Catlin.

Preston missed out again to take only 11 points in their Div 8 West game, losing to Pinner by 5 wickets. Preston elected to bat were all out for 157 in the 40th over. Preston’s opener James Battersby in his first knock of the year made a decent 69 but the next highest was Srini Nanjundan with 21. Just not enough runs from elsewhere. In reply Pinnr got over the line comfortably in the 31st over reaching 161/5 and taking 30 points.

A win for the Preston Fourth X1 beating Hoddesdon Third X1. Hoddy were bowled out for 85 and Preston’s Garnham (22 not out) and D Clark (39 not out) finished the job off.  A Great result and some excellent performances from the young superstars.

Some nail-biting games across our junior teams this week too. In the U13’s Preston lost out by 3 runs against a strong Bishop’s Stortford side. Disappointing not to make it but a superb effort nonetheless. The Preston U11’s had another great game v Hitchin to bring home a win in the bitter evening wind! Well done to all players for standing out in it! And the U9’s had a superb game v Hitchin again on Sunday missing out by 6 runs but a brilliantly managed game and some excellent skills and show and everyone had lots of fun.

Another busy week is coming up.