It’s LORDS next for Reeds Home-grown Heroes
In a tremendous game of Cricket that swung this way and that throughout a tense, though absorbing, afternoon, Hertfordshire Champions Reed emerged triumphant, and ultimately convincing winners, over Wiltshire Champions Goatacre in their Semi-Final of the Yorkshire Tea National Village Knock Out Cup. Reed now go on to appear in the national competition final v Yorkshire side Woodhouse Grange at the “Home of Cricket” LORDS on Sunday 9th September. Once again in this competition Reed fielded a team comprising 10 home grown players all emanating from the excellent Reed Colts Academy. Which has been operating for over 35 years.
Typically in this wet summer the weather had an immediate impact on the match. A rainy morning in Wiltshire left the ground wet and conditions overcast as Reed lost the toss and not surprisingly were asked to bat first on a wicket that seemed likely to favour the bowlers early on. This was immediately confirmed as, in front of a large crowd of around 500, Goatacre opening bowler Matt House charged in and produced a peach of a ball to remove Reed skipper James Heslam bowled with the first ball of the match! Worse was to follow as 2 balls later he repeated the exercise and, with another seaming pace delivery also bowled Reeds Tom Greaves. Reed 0 -2 – Welcome to Wiltshire! Chris Jackson joined young Will Heslam at the crease and the pair started to stem the tide and re-build the Reed innings. After 8 overs the pair took the total to 29 but then Jackson 14 also fell, again bowled by a special delivery from the rampant House. The determined Stuart Smith, something of a Village Cup specialist for Reed, joined Heslam at the crease and the pair appeared to have weathered the storm when House was removed from the home team attack after 6, of his maximum available 9, overs. The score was now 50 for 3 from 12 overs, however next over Will Heslam was caught for 19 and at 55-4 Reed were not out of the woods.
The small Wiltshire ground is one where a decent total is imperative and scores of 300+ in 40 overs are not unusual! This is further demonstrated by the fact that only 4 shots for 2 and not a single shot for 3 were scored during the entire day! Stuart Smith decided that attack had to be the best form of defence and sensibly choosing the right balls to strike he launched a blistering onslaught on the Goatacre change bowlers. In a dramatic innings containing 7 x 6’s and 8 x 4’s Stuart blasted Reed back into the match. Supported first by Mitchell Cooper 26 and later by Karl Ward 37 Reed motored back into contention. Frequent maximum strikes saw the lost ball count rise as leather flew out of the ground and into all parts of the Wiltshire countryside! At 20 Overs Reed had moved to a semi respectable 99-4 but by 33 Overs the total was 199 -6 and the travelling Reed supporters, numbering in excess of 100, envisaged a total nearer 300 than 200! The sun had by now broken thro ugh and a hot and sunny afternoon replaced the earlier gloom. However, once again the match turned. Matt House returned into the home side attack and in an over of high drama conceded 16 runs but ultimately had both Smith 100 and Karl Ward 37 both caught on the boundary. 5 Balls later the Reed Innings was all over as the late tail failed to wag and Reed were dismissed after only 36 of their 40 Overs for 225 – but – it could have been so much worse!!
Those who have followed Reed this season could not fail to have been impressed by their team spirit and truly excellent bowling and fielding. At the halfway stage the Goatacre players and their large number of supporters were very confident of victory whilst the Reed contingent sat nervous, but with a strong belief that all was not yet over by any means.
The Reed camp followers faith was not misplaced and in the 2nd over Goatacre’s opener Pocock fell caught behind by Sean Tidey off the bowling of brother Jack. With Reeds “Red Bullet” Lee Johnson bowling at express pace at the other end the Goatacre batsman were given very little to feed off and at 22-1 off 8 overs the home team were not finding things easy. 3 boundaries in Johnsons next over saw Goatacres star batsmen Wilkins try and break out but skipper Heslam held his nerve and stuck to his game plan of bowling his opening bowlers for their full 9 over spells. He was immediately rewarded when off the 1st ball of Johnsons next over Edwards was LBW for 7 and then next over Wilkins was well caught at slip by Chris Jackson off Tidey for 23. At 41-3 after 12 overs the home side realised they were slipping and had a battle on their hands. A period of consolidation followed between Dawson and Haines but the Reed bowling remained accurate and hostile and the Reed ground fiel ding excellent. 69-3 off 20 overs was patently behind the required rate but in the context of the small ground and the home teams experience of ratcheting up mammoth scores the Reed team could not relax. In the 26th over Haines skied a Tom Greaves off break and skipper James Heslam gleefully pocketed the catch. However Brad Dawson immediately responded with a 6 and the potential for a fight back was there for all to see. 3 overs later Greaves bowled Williams for 5 and at 107-5 off 28 Reed again seemed favourites. Mitchell Cooper was bowling an excellent and economical spell but dangerous veteran Kevin Isles was now at the crease and hammered 2 maximums in an over to spoil his figures. However Isles joy was short lived and as he tried to repeat the dose he fell well caught on the boundary by Will Heslam. The very next ball Dawson on 43 holed out to Chis Jackson and at 135-7 off 33 overs the match was surely Reeds? 91 to win in 7 overs with only 2 wickets in hand was surely too much for the home team and so it proved as Lee Johnson took 2 catches on the long off boundary to see Goatacre all out for 163 in the 36th over and Reed victors by 62 runs. The ecstatic Reed team engulfed Johnson as their supporters celebrated on the pitch surrounds. The Reed bowlers all excelled. Lee Johnson 9 Overs 1-27, Jack Tidey 9 Overs 2-29, Mitchell Cooper 8.3 Overs 3 – 42 and Tom Greaves 7 Overs 4-45 shared the wickets and the Reed fielders took every catch that was offered to them.
A magnificent game of Cricket, played in a good spirit by the players, superbly organised and managed by the Goatacre club, and played in front of a very large and appreciative crowd. A wonderful day which will be remembered forever by all at Reed who participated or watched from the boundary!
