Reed 1st XI and 2nd XI marked an historic cricket season for the club on Saturday as they were crowned unassailable champions of Divisions 3 and 8 respectively, earning hard fought promotion since early May. Simon Jackson’s 1st XI, never dropping below 4th place, maintained their professionalism by beating Harpenden IIs by nine wickets in the final league game of the season, and the 2nd XI dominated 1st position throughout the season, enjoying promotion 2 weeks ago.

The club’s highly successful season was also emphasised by a 10 wicket drubbing over Royston in the Keatley Cup final, and a startling National Village Cup campaign which saw them win a moral victory in the regional semi finals against a full strength, premiership St. Margaretsbury XI despite losing in a tense final ball 1 wicket loss. This is all only a year after the 1XI were won Division 4 of the Herts League in 2002.

The Harpenden showdown saw Reed restrict the opposition to 134-9 off 53 overs thanks to some aggressive fast bowling by Michael Berks (15-4-36-2) and William Clarke (11-4-29-2), as well as 2 sharp run-outs by Chris Jackson and a direct hit by James Heslam. Some typically accurate inswing by leading club wicket-taker and icon Peter Tidey (9-4-16-2) and controlled spin by Richard Jerome (17.5-5-44-1) added further pressure to the Harpenden batsmen. D.Karunaratne (56) released some steam with a few aggressive strokes dragging the hosts to their total, but Reed’s solid reply saw James Heslam (70) and William Clarke (44*) forge a 127 run opening partnership, against some particularly testing seam bowling by P.Frost (10-0-36-1). With Heslam’s untimely removal, Baz Curtis completed Reed’s quest hitting the winning runs to the boundary cueing a champagne shower for the village side.

Saturday’s victory bolstered an unbeaten spell since mid June, as the side again demonstrated their strength in bowling first. This is illustrated by an average league score against them during the season totalling 122 during the allotted 53 overs, and winning margins of typically 8 or 9 wickets.

Simon Jackson, club captain and 1st XI skipper was delighted: “This is a memorable era for the club. It’s almost unfathomable to think we were bottom of Division 4 after 7 games last season. With such a sensational league run since June 2002 of 24 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses we feel ready to graduate to Division 2, although it will not be easy, and we will again need to raise our game.”