Reed travelled to Flitwick on Saturday in need of a victory to maintain their promotion push. On what was a glorious day for cricket, Bernie Morss won the toss and elected to bat despite the pitch looking lush after a week of showers. Reed lost opener Phil Frenay early on as he was yorked for 3. This brought the in-form Chris Jackson to the crease and he and James Heslam looked to rebuild the innings. C. Jackson was soon into his stride and scored at a comfortable rate, taking advantage of some over pitched bowling. Heslam, although not scoring as fluently as Jackson, was looking in ominous form. The pair looked set for big scores, but just as C. Jackson made it to his half century, an error of judgement led to him being caught at point for a well made 53, leaving Reed 101-2.
Tom Greaves was next in, however his stay was short as he was adjudged caught behind for 0. Marcus Martin looked comfortable at the crease until he was bowled for 4 which brought in Richard Johnson. Johnson (15) played some delightful drives and it looked as though he and Heslam could form a meaningful partnership. Unfortunately for the team however, Heslam perished, run out for 63, and with him went Reed’s hopes of making a total much over 200. Next out was R. Johnson, caught for 15.
Some lusty blows from Lee Johnson (16) and quick running between the wickets from Si Jackson edged the total closer to 200, however after L. Johnson was run out, both Bernie Morss and Graham Wilson could not add much to the tally, both making 1 and leaving Andy Young 0 not out. Despite Reed not attaining their desired total, the team felt confident that with a score of 188 on the board they had a target which they could defend on a wicket which offered some assistance to the bowlers.
Reed started slowly with both L. Johnson (5-0-29-0) and Wilson (5-0-21-0) struggling with their line, as the Flitwick openers took advantage of this uncharacteristic wayward bowling. With 10 overs bowled and Flitwick having made a good start, Morss (19-4-59-6) and Young (18-3-68-3) were introduced to the attack. Young took a while to loosen up, however skipper Morss was straight into the action removing both openers in quick succession. Flitwick regrouped and a partnership of 45 for the third wicket threatened to take the game away from the visitors, however Young began to find his line and length Reed were able to assert pressure to the Flitwick batsmen.
Young made the initial breakthrough, followed quickly by another wicket for Morss. Once again Flitwick formed another partnership which, perhaps should have taken them all the way to victory. However, some excellent bowling from Young and Morss and some good ground fielding from the rest of the team led to Flitwick collapsing from 167-4 to 184-9 setting up a tense final ball. Reed needed a single wicket for victory and Flitwick needed to find the boundary to claim all 30 points. With the field spread, the ball was defended and the points were shared. Reed will be disappointed with the result, as at the beginning of the game confidence was high within the team. On the other hand, Reed found themselves in some difficult situations at various stages throughout the game, and to come so close to victory shows the character of the team. Reed host Bishop Stortford II’s next weekend up at the Green.
