Last Thursday as part of the build up to the Clubs 50th anniversary celebrations Reed took on a Barbados XI touring side in a 40 over a side contest at The Green. The Barbados XI comprised of a mix of players but included some excellent Caribbean prospects keen to gain valuable experience on wickets outside of their homeland.

The day began well for the tourists as they won the toss and elected to bat in the dry and sunny conditions. Despite most of the Reed bowlers performing well the Barbadians stroked their way to a commanding total of 227-6 in their 40 overs with the main contribution coming from the visitors number 4 batsman. The pick of the Reed attack was probably Rupert Martin who bowled a tight spell of 7-1-27. In reply Reed got off to a decent start thanks to James Heslam (41) and Matt Bowles (16). Infact they were in a decent position at 115-1 with Chris Jackson (63) joining Heslam to build a decent platform. Heslam fell shortly after looking to push things on but Marcus Martin (23) took over and he and Jackson continued to set things up.

However Reed never quite got up with the required rate and once these two were gone, Simon Jackson found himself stranded, not for the first time of late, as the Reed lower order and tail understandably struggled to hit the necessary boundaries to win the game. The hosts finishing on 199 all out in the final over of the day. Nevertheless it was a great days cricket enjoyed by both sides and opens up the potential for Reed to look at the possibility of a Caribbean Tour in 2007. For this summer they will have to make do with a repeat of the 2005 trip to Norwich!