Rusty Beaconsfield lose at Reading

Having not played in a month due to the inclement weather, Beaconsfield's league season finally started a week later than most away to Reading. With four new players, including head coach Jason Harrison, there was a real positive feeling about the side hoping to kickstart their season with a strong performance.

Despite the positivity amongst the group, the first league match reeked of rustiness as having won the toss Beaconsfield opted to bat first on what was a newly laid square in the off-season. This along with a slow outfield meant that it was hard graft for runs but despite the early loss of Adam Francis, Beaconsfield looked solid building a platform, even if runs weren't being scored all that easily.

As was often the case last year, Luc Walker provided the backbone of the innings, really holding it together with a well fought 53. However, support was minimal with only two partnerships of note with Jeremy Suter (12) & James Rendell (13), and wickets in the middle order falling at regular intervals the target score of 160 looked unlikely. In the end, Beaconsfield were all out for 116 in the 51st over knowing that it was going to be an uphill task to defend such a low score.

The good news was that Reading found it equally as tough to score fluently against the seamers and with a couple of early wickets picked up by Ahmed Hassan & Jon Mahood, confidence began to increase within the visiting team. However the rustiness within the team returned as the spin bowlers failed to apply as much pressure on the Reading batsman as Reading's bowlers had done to our batsman, and loose balls were dispatched to the boundary and the target drew nearer.

The return of Jon Mahood (3-25) saw a couple of quick wickets fall, removing David Barr (40) and Sukhi Kang (31) in successive overs, however it was too little too late as Reading eventually reached their target in the 44th over with 5 to spare.