On a warm summers evening Reed took on Buntingford in the Keatley Cup Semi-final at Therfield. Buntingford won the toss and elected to bat first. Reed captain Lee Johnson led by example making the early breakthrough by clean bowling Paola for 2. However, despite a good opening few overs by Johnson (3-16) and spinner Will Dobson (3-23), Buntingford got off to a reasonable start largely thanks to the powerful hitting of J Rudder who made a quickfire 27.
When Rudder went to a good catch on the long on boundary by Garrott off the bowling of Mitchell Cooper (2-33), Buntingford were in a reasonable position at 41-2 off 6 overs. Key batsman Chambers and A Parkins now looked to build a partnership and this they did without managing to up the run rate as much as they might have liked due to some good Reed bowling. After 10 overs the score had moved onto 68-2. And just when it looked like Chambers (20) was moving into his stride he was caught by Heslam at midwicket off the impressive Kallum Ward (1-17) who always seems to deliver for Reed in this competition.
The wicket of Chambers signalled the start of a major collapse for Buntingford. Although Kitscha (15) hit some decent shots and Parkin continued on to make 16, Reed took wickets at regular intervals which kept the rate down so that Buntingford eventually finished on 103-9 after their 16 overs.
In reply, Reed lost the early wicket of the inform Tom Greaves caught at mid-off off the bowling of Robertson (1-20) for a duck. However, Ed Garrott and Liam Mcechnie steadied the ship and batted sensibly. Reed were 30-1 after 5 overs. Garrott and Mcechnie continued on and became increasingly dominant as they got their eyes in. Although the game was perhaps still in the balance at 62-1 after 10, Reed had wickets in hand and both batsman then opened up over the next 3 overs and the game was all but won when Mcechnie held out for a well made 44 with the score on 95 with 2.4 overs left. Garrott was also run out after making an elegant 35 but it was left to Marcus Martin (10) to hit the winning runs with a 6 and a 4 in 3 balls to see Reed home and into the final with Elmdon next Wednesday night at Therfield.
