Reed got back to winning ways with a very convincing win over previously 4th place Dunstable, with a great all round performance on Saturday. James Heslam and Tom Greaves, took the game early to Dunstable with them hitting the bad ball for 4 and but defending the balls with varied bounce. Greaves hit his first 50 of the season off only 39 balls and in his innings of 55 he hit 11 4s before he was first to go.
This bought Reed Vice Captain Chris Jackson in with captain Heslam. Both used their maturity and experience to guide the Dunstable attack to all areas of the very large outfield. Heslam anchored the inning in his 80. With Reed wanting to get as many runs as possible with the outfield being so quick, meant that wickets were falling from attacking shots rather than good balls. Jackson went for 28 as did Liam McKecknie after a quick fire innings. Tom Fulk (31 not out) and Phil Frenay (10 not out) with a strike rate of 250% saw Reed to an impressive 245-4 in 52 overs.
In reply Dunstable never got going after only have 1 off the first 4 overs, with young Jack Tidey (1-24) and Graham Wilson (3-52) bowling well. Wilson got the first wicket with the Dunstable openers eyes lighting up when he thought he had a run scoring shot before his stumps were spread over Bedfordshire. This bought in Oxford University cricketer Jon Lodwick, who obviously could bat and with Reed knowing it would be hard to get him out, decided it was best to leave him in as he was more interested in getting a not out than winning the game for his club. Reed continued to attack the other end, with all bowlers bowling well. Greaves and Will Dobson, the new Reed spin twins were tying up the batsman with Greaves taking 3-12 and Dobson 1-28 With Lodwick not going for a win and getting his 50 in 33 overs, a Reed win was starting to look harder and harder, even though wickets were falling consistently through the innings.
However a break through from quickie Lee Johnson (1-36) with a sharp catch behind the stumps from keeper Simon Jackson to finally see the end of Lodwick for 92, saw Dunstable go 9 down leaving Reed 4 overs to get the final wicket. As Reeds innings was started by Heslam and Greaves it was quite appt that it was finished with the two of them as Heslam caught the winning catch of the bowling of Greaves, bowling Dunstable out for 174 meaning Reed won by 71 runs. Skipper Heslam, was very happy with the Reed win. “For weeks we have been talking about playing to our potential and finally today we did. EVERYONE performed today and had an influence on the game with either the bat, the ball or in the field. It was a nice to get the total but to bowl a team out on the Dunstable track was very impressive indeed.”
