Reed were unable to maintain their NVC momentum after their drubbing of Langleybury the previous week, as they fell agonisingly close to beating North Mymms on Sunday to book their place in the regional final, emulating the previous season. The north Hertfordshire side were forced to play at the Herts County Premier League team’s home ground, adjacent to the cacophony of the A1M, yet it was Reed who were sent packing back up to Hertfordshire’s agricultural bread basket following a strong bowling performance by North Mymms.
Having lost the toss, Reed were asked to field on a pitch that was perfectly suited to batting, and they set abut demonstrating how this was done, as Graham Wilson (8-0-40-0) was set upon early by C Stead (34) and K Claxton (38). Andrew Young (9-0-41-0) bowled with exemplary control in his second 1XI bowling session after knee surgery, as was unlucky not to take a wicket despite some magical deliveries and constant edges through the slips for 4. It took a sharp run-out by Chris Jackson, exploiting youngster Claxton’s misjudgement running out his captain, for Reed to make a breakthrough, but this only encouraged Claxton to dig in more as he settled with partner Bamford (31) to take the score to 102 for 1 off 18 overs. The signs looked ominous for Reed until Chris Jackson (9-1-30-3) came on to bowl in partnership with William Clarke (9-0-29-2) as they both put the brakes on the run rate by bowling accurate spin and seam deliveries. Jackson made the breakthrough having Bamford caught by wicketkeeper Simon Jackson early. Clarke then bowled opener Claxton with a yorker to leave the hosts on 111-3. The bowling pair continued to dry up the runs which built pressure on the middle order. Left hander S Clements reacted well as he grafted a sensible 36*, but further breakthroughs from Jackson (partly due to a stunning boundary catch from skipper Heslam) and Clarke stopped North Mymms from building a total. Some tidy overs from Graham Wilson and Karl Ward at the end (2-0-14-0) restricted North Mymms to 189-7 off 40 overs.
On this batting wicket and on the back of recent batting form, Reed were confident they could chase, but the early loss of Curtis (7) and Heslam (15) left Reed on 33-2. Chris Jackson (11) and Richard Johnson tried to stabilise, but both played lazy shots to be caught and stumped. A Cole (9-0-42-5) was the pick of the North Mymms bowlers. Two subsequent unneeded run outs left Reed reeling on 84-6 off 21 overs, with Tom Fulk (54) still in place, but as S Jackson (1) also fell early, it was left to Karl Ward to partner him as the pair tried in vain to maintain the required run rate. Yet accurate bowling and excellent field setting made this tricky. The run rate climbed and with such pressure, Tom Fulk was forced to open his shoulders, caught on the boundary. It was done and dusted when Reed’s final big hitting hope, Andrew Young, was dismissed for 8. Ward finished on a respectable and responsible 26, but sadly for Reed it was not to be, as they gave up a place in the Village Cup final to another village, albeit slightly different in scale and stature to the standard entrant to the competition. An interesting point to note was that North Mymms conceded a massive 41 runs in extras during their innings, consisting of 34 wides, a score any batsman should be rightly proud of.
James Heslam commented: “Its always a shame to get knocked out of the Cup, especially after our recent successes over recent seasons, but North Mymms played well, and on the day we simply folded – another day Im confident we would have chased that for 2 or 3 wickets – perhaps if injured Peter Tidey was available he could have snaffled some early wickets or kept runs down? At least we can now pour our energies into the League”
