Reed made it through to the regional semi finals of the National Village Cup on Sunday despite a major scare away to Eversholt. On a beautiful sunny day Reed won the toss and put their Herts League Division 4 opponents into bat. The hosts responded positively by getting off to a decent start on what despite not being the best of pitches was at a high scoring ground with a lightening fast outfield. Despite a typically economical spell from Peter Tidey (9-2-26-0) Eversholt moved onto 65-0 off 12 overs and were at this point going along nicely.
However, a breakthrough always looked possible and a good piece of work by Frenay in the covers saw Garratt run out for 19. From then on Reed took a firmer grip of the game and despite the efforts of the in form opener Litchford (65) Eversholt were pegged back to 90-3 at the drinks break. Lee Johnson (1-46) deservedly removing their no.3 in the final over of his spell and Richard Johnson (8-1-35-4) picking up the first of his 4 wickets just before the halfway point. Following this the game swung massively in Reeds favour as further to the run out of Litchford following good work by R.Johnson & Chris Jackson they took control and the home side collapsed to 144 all out inside 33 overs. Tom Greaves making his Village Cup debut and Karl Ward also picking up a wicket a piece.
In reply, Reed set out confident of victory with 40 overs to make just 144. However Eversholt opener Avis produced a fine spell of seam bowling to remove the Reed top 4 of James Heslam, Chris Jackson, Tom Fulk and Phil Frenay all for single figures. At 14-4 after 10 overs Reed were in serious trouble of failing to defend their Herts & Beds village cup title. However, Stuart Smith and 18 year old Tom Greaves had other ideas. They came together and firstly steadied the ship before looking to begin to break free and slowly but surely calmly repaired the damage of the first 10 overs. Having made it to drinks at 60-4 the pair then opened up and each played some big shots to record massively important and fine 50’s. It was Tom Greaves first outing in the Village Cup and a day to remember for him. Although Greaves was caught in the deep attempting to end the game that bit sooner Johnson joined the highly impressive Smith to see Reed home by 5 wickets. Captain Heslam made special praise to Smith and in particular Greaves. ‘Stuart & Tom were superb today. At 14-4 we were in trouble but they saw off the danger of particularly Avis who bowled very well and then began to open up in style. Tom’s innings was one of superb maturity at such a young age, he has come on massively over the last few years and is a great prospect for the club. He also did a good job for us with the ball! Reed will now face Long Marston at home this Sunday in the semi-final.
