Reed lost out to North Herts League Division 1 champions Holwell on Sunday in a high scoring game on ‘The Green’, after poor fielding let the home side down.
Winning the toss and batting first, Reed openers Tom Fulk (8) and Phil Frenay (0) both fell early, victims of Howell’s ‘pacemen’ Parkins and Dixon respectively. Dixon also accounted for Michael Robertson (4) to leave Reed struggling on 17-3. Richard Barlow and Karl Ward showed good resilience for Reed however, with Barlow looking solid and Ward finding boundaries to take Reed over the 50 mark. However, Dixon struck again, first to remove Ward for 22, and then Barlow for 11 to leave the home side in deep trouble on 64-5 after 14 Overs.
Reed captain Marcus Martin and Richard Johnson then set about Salvaging the innings. Both Batsmen showed their class, with a fine array of shots played on both sides of the wicket. Martin was playing a captains innings, and Johnson’s sublime technique gave the Holwell bowlers a tough time. Martin reached his 50 with 8 boundaries, and Johnson also made 50 hitting six 4’s. Johnson was eventually bowled by off spinner Paola for 53, but Martin remained unbeaten at this point. Matt Bowles joined his captain in the middle with Overs running out, and the pair took the score to 197, before Martin was caught for a magnificent 76. Bowles then hit his way to 14 not out, and Reed finished their 40 Overs on 213-7.
In reply, Holwell were faced with the pace attack of Andy Wholley and Rupert Martin. Despite some good bowling, especially early on from Wholley, Holwell’s opening batsmen Parkins and Rudder remained, and began to free their arms and find the boundaries. Parkins was in punishing mood, and plundered the Reed attack to all parts on his way to 73. Rudder was also hitting the ball hard, but Reed were to count the cost of dropped catches, as he was dropped 1st on 15, and then again 3 more times in his unbeaten innings of 80. Parkins was run out for 73, but Dixon replaced him and his hard hitting and no nonsense batting style got him 45 Not Out as Holwell got home comfortably, winning by 9 wickets.
Captain Marcus martin reflected on a bitter-sweet day for himself “I’m hugely disappointed at our fielding display, and we didn’t bowl to our best either. To drop 6 catches is not helpful when playing class batsmen like the Holwell ones. On the other hand I felt we batted quite well, myself and Richard Johnson built a good partnership and 213 was an average score for 40 Overs.”
