Reeds brave midweek side had to settle for Runners up spot in the John Barker Cup. After making up for Keatley Cup disappointments with an exciting campaign in the Herts midweek competition which included victories over Herts Division 1 and 2 opposition, Reed lost out to Division 1 Letchworth in Fridays final.
Reed got off to a good start reducing their opponents to 11-2 after 2 overs thanks to good opening overs from William Clarke and Michael Berks, the latter dismissing the dangerous Bowyer first ball of the game. However Letchworth responded in excellent fashion scoring 41 runs off the next 4 overs. With the batsmen using the pace of Reeds openers Reed midweek captain James Heslam turned to the swing of Peter Tidey who soon pegged Letchworth back taking a wicket in his first over. From then on Reed tightened things up and Johnson and the returning Berks supported Tidey well leaving Reed a gettable target of 113 to win the cup for the first in the clubs history. Reed got off to a reasonable start. Although always slightly behind the run rate they were in with a shout at 22-0 after 5 overs. However, Heslam went in the next over and some excellent bowling and one extremely debatable umpiring decision to get rid of Simon Jackson left Reed in deep trouble at 37-3 at the halfway stage. Despite the best efforts of Peter Tidey promoted up the order to hit out and Ray Kingshott who struck a big six in his 22 Reed remained out of touch and fell 30 runs short bowled out in the last over of the game. |
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