Following a positive League performance the day before, Reed 1st XI went into the Regional Finals of the National Village Cup with vigour, hoping to emulate their previous shock victory against the same side in the same competition many years before. With Langleybury topping Division 1 of the Herts League, and Reed 1st XI, only 2 years ago in Division 4, it was destined to be an enthralling battle, which the home side eventually squeezing home by a slight margin of 5 runs.

Langleybury, winning the toss, elected to bat. Almost immediately, N. Illott, brother of the England left armer fast bowler Mark, made some inroads against openers Will Clarke (9-2-39-0) and Peter Tidey (9-3-28-1). Despite a couple of early chances, which Reed failed to capitalise upon, he soon battled his way to 68, before Richard Johnson (9-0-65-2) had him caught off a miscued pull stroke. At the other end, Reed olympian Peter Tidey completed a spectacular one-handed catch to remove the other opener G.Cooper (13). However, the accelerated run rate continued. With M Fry (53*) now settled, and J.Costello (31) seeing the ball well, Reed envisaged a chase of nearly 250 off the 40 overs, but some fine bowling at the death by Richard Jerome (9-0-40-1) saw the hosts reach 210 for 4 off their 40 overs.

Reed’s reply began with vigour, as Baz Curtis (5) and James Heslam (4) managed to speed the score to 18 off 2 overs, until they fell to D. Best (6-0-32-1) and A. Gunning (4-0-23-1) respectively, the latter being a much debated LBW decision that emerged as a main turning point in the match.

This brought Chris Jackson to the crease, whose recent period of poor form dissipated as he smashed 63 and sustain a run-chase of 5 an over. However, when he was superbly caught on the boundary by Costello, and C.Spinks (7-0-38-2) bowled Tom Fulk, Reed looked in trouble at 101 for 4 off 21 overs. Richard Jerome (42) batted sensibly with Chris Shorrock (9) turning over singles, and the occasional 2 to keep the scoreboard ticking. However, the run rate continued to rise, and when Shorrock was sent packing by a sharp caught and bowled opportunity by Costello, and Jerome was another victim to a tight LBW decision that turned the game, it was left to the Reed tail to sustain an 8 an over run-rate.

Stuart Smith (16) smashed a couple of lusty blows, one of which made a lasting mark on a nearby Mercedes, to keep Reed on track, but when he skied a catch to mid on two fresh batsmen needed to get back on top. Skipper Simon Jackson (21*), in a recent vein of good form, was forced to press the fielders with Will Clarke (23) for the final 8 overs. Their cheeky singles and doubles even made the crowd exhausted as they closed in on the target to the dismay of the 200 Langleybury spectators. The nervous fielders were soon pegged to the boundary as they sensed a massive upset, until the introduction of Spinks for the final 2 overs at one end slowed the run rate just enough to leave Clarke requiring a six off the final ball to win. Failing to achieve this, it saw Reed fall out of the Village Cup competition for another year.

Club Captain, Simon Jackson, commented afterwards: “Of course, we were hugely disappointed at losing today, especially after our encouraging performance against Hoddesdon II yesterday. We have consistently performed well over the past 2 years in this competition and given Langleybury, and St. Margaretsbury last year real scares – both sides are well above us in the Hertfordshire League set-up. In both of these games, we had the opposition running-scared at many points, which is really a superb sign for a village side where we can all draw positives.”