Reed moved up to 6th position in Herts league division 2 with a comfortable nine wicket victory against local rivals Hertford II.

When Reed arrived at Balls Park they found that the original pitch was waterlogged and therefore unplayable, so a new pitch was cut which delayed the start of the game by over an hour. When the game eventually got underway and Hertford had surprisingly decided to bat first on an under prepared wicket Reeds bowlers got straight into the job in hand and caused complete havoc. Michael Berks (3-24) was the initial destroyer with a lighting fast spell of bowling that put the fear of God into the Hertford top order. Berks was superbly supported by Richard Johnson who bowled his best spell for Reed for sometime to take 2-19 off his 11 over spell.

With the pace bowlers doing the initial hard work to leave Hertford in disarray at 41 for 5 it was left to Reeds experienced bowlers Peter Tidey and Richard Jerome (1-15) to increase the carnage on the Hertford batsman to leave them 76 all out of 38 overs. Peter Tidey produced another awe-inspiring spell of bowling to finish with 4-11 of 11.1 overs. None of the Hertford batsman were able to deal with the brilliance of the Reed bowling and the highest score in the innings was 14 by Tom Bancroft.


Reed set about the paltry target in style with James Heslam hitting the first ball for 4 and this set the tone for how the innings was going to progress. Both Heslam and the inform Tom Fulk played the impressive Hertford spinners with respect and patience but ruthlessly punished the bad balls that were offered. James Heslam was the only victim in the Reed innings when he was lbw to P Patel (1-12) for 32 with the score on 72. Stuart Smith
joined the sumptuous Tom Fulk (36 not out) at the wicket and finished the innings with a caressed 4 through mid on to give Reed there 6th victory of the season.

Reed Captain Simon Jackson was delighted with the 30 point win. “It was a farce when we turn up and there was not a wicket for us to play on. However once the game started we put that all behind us to thoroughly stuff Herford who were promoted with us last year. Everyone bowled well whilst James and Fulky batted with maturity well beyond their years. Hopefully we can continue this level of performance when we have a full squad to pick from at St Albans II at home on Saturday. Selection could be very hard this week”