Reeds first appearance in the national section for nearly 20 years in the National Village Cup competition saw Reed lose in the last over to a well balanced Buckinghamshire side Bledlow Ridge.

After recently winning the Herts/Beds section of the competition and appearing on Sky Sports Cricket AM, Reeds confidence was high despite losing the toss and having to field in the hot afternoon heat. The ever dependable Pete Tidey and born again Will Clarke tied Bledlow down early on and Clarke took the 1st wicket in the 9th over when he cleaned up Turner with the score on 21. Tidey completed his 9 overs for a meagre 15 runs. Clarke took a 2nd wicket in his opening spell thanks to a sharp catch from keeper Simon Jackson and Marcus Martin then took a wicket in his 1st over to leaver Bledlow at 38-3 at the end of the 15th over. D Wells (63) for the visitors continued to anchor his team and was ably supported by S Bird (21).

Reed continued to bowl tightly and field well before the Buckinghamshire side decided to open their shoulders and run harder between the wickets. Reed thought they had Brzezicki stumped before he got going before he was finally run out for 37 after good work from Heslam. 2 wickets in his 2 over spell, at the death by man of the match Karl Ward saw Reeds confidence grow and saw Bledlow finish on 188-9 in their 40 overs.

In reply Reed opener Baz Curtis and James Heslam got Reed off to a solid start, with a mixture of solid defence and big hitting shots. However with the field now spread Curtis was the 1st to go in the 12th over when he holed playing another big shot and was caught on the boundary for 38 with the score on 65.

However losing Curtis started the slow down of the Reed scoring rate, allrounder Clarke followed shortly after before the big wicket of Heslam (38) fell in the 23rd over with the score on 115-4. With Reed now needing 74 from the last 17 overs, it seemed that all Reed had to do was push the ball around the field to win the game. However accurate bowling and good fielding from Bledlow slowed the run rate down.

A 6 ball 11 from Ward and captain Simon Jackson tried to guide Reed to victory however Jackson was out for 34 in the penultimate over. This left Reed needing 7 runs to win, with bowlers Andrew Emms and Tidey at the crease. 2 runs from the 1st 4 balls meant a boundary was needed from the last 2 balls with number 11 Tidey on strike. However with Tidey making good contact the ball did not carry to the boundary and he was caught short of the boundary with Reed failing to make Bledlows target by 4 runs.

A gutted Simon Jackson said “we did so well to get to the National round of the Village cup, being the best village team in Herts/Beds and beating Langleybury. We all performed well, however missing bowlers Michael Berks and Richard Johnson and with my brother at only 50% fitness it was always going to be a massive struggle. Bledlow were a experienced side who had obviously been in this sort of position before, we perhaps showed a little bit of inexperience chasing however next year we will be coming back fighting stronger in the Village Cup and will hope to fly the flag again for Hertfordshire.”