Reed Champions of Division Four
Champagne flowed and the party continued through the night at Reed on Saturday, as Simon Jackson led his 1st XI side to snatch the spoils of Division 4 glory and promotion at the hands of Sandridge. Reed 1st XI’s 12 week unbeaten trend was compounded as they overwhelmed, and aided the relegation of the opposition by seven wickets.

Scoring 186-6 off their 53 overs, Reed restricted the visitor’s well, despite some powerful shots by D.Kerry (33) and Miller (39), with wickets spread evenly throughout the bowling attack. Reed’s fielding was sharp throughout as they again demonstrated their youthful superiority by snatching 2 run-outs and performing some spectacular diving stops.

Yet the victory was earmarked by James Heslam’s chanceless maiden league century. Having registered a golden duck the year before, he extinguished all doubt by demoralising and dominating the Sandridge bowling attack by classily striking the ball to all parts of the ground. Some solid support from Clarke (28), and C.Jackson (24) clearly aided him in his quest for his 104* but his innings of deft nudges plus powerful pulls and drives was a clear highlight of the league season. More importantly, his first-class innings ensured Reed sealed total command of the league having trailed in bottom place 11 weeks ago. Furthermore, it compounded their 3 month unbeaten purple patch, marked by 10 victories.

Reed ensured victory with 10 overs to spare fulfilling a team dream, and forging an historic record-breaking season for the club. Club and 1st XI captain, Simon Jackson, elated with the culmination of a nail biting season, commented after the match “Many sides wrote us off part-way through the season, but we proved that we had the mental strength and teamwork to pull together and demonstrate that we were the strongest Division 4 side”