Reed II’s salvaged a draw away at Northwood Town II’s on Saturday, but their inept batting performance left captain Jason Archer fuming.
Losing the toss on a scorching Summers afternoon, Reed were put into the field by the Northwood captain. Richard Johnson (0-40) and Graham Wilson (2-28) opened the bowling for the visitors and did so very well, causing the Northwood batsmen no end of problems. Indeed, Wilson’s canny and probing line snared an early wicket after gaining an edge through to keeper Matt Bowles. Reed continued to pile on pressure, and another Wilson wicket, combined with 3 from Skipper Archer (3-29) and 2 from Karl Ward (2-60) left the home side in big trouble on 110-7.
However an effective lower order partnership got Northwood out of a hole, and took their score up towards 150. Rupert Martin snared a late wicket to help reduce the arrears, but it was spinner Ben Bowles’ introduction that finally did the trick for Reed. The veteran bowled just 4 balls, but took the last 2 wickets, one thanks to a sharp stumping from brother Matt Bowles to leave Northwood all out on 189.
Reed’s reply got off well, with Ben Bowles (21) and Stuart Smith (26) both looking good and progressing the score to 42. However when Smith went, caught at mid off, the Reed batting collapse started. Michael Robertson went next, and when Ben Bowles edged behind Reed were faltering. Karl Ward, Richard Johnson and Matt Bowles all then played very poor shots to get themselves out in quick succession, meaning Reed had gone from 42-0, to 86-7. Luckily for Reed, Fergus and Rupert Martin kept their heads and batted very maturely to help see off the bulk of the remaining overs, whilst also adding to the total steadily. Fergus Martin eventually departed on 11 in somewhat acrimonious circumstance after being given out “caught” off of a bump ball. Rupert Martin also departed late on for a well made 24. It was then left to Captain Archer and Graham Wilson to block out the remaining 2 Overs, saving the game for Reed and giving them 10 points, with Northwood gaining 17.
A clearly dismayed Archer later commented : “I feel completely let down by all of our batsmen, some of whom I have shown an awful lot of faith in, we have so much talent within what is a very good young side. We are, on paper, I believe one of the best teams in the Division, but every week in some aspects of the game my players do their best to prove me wrong. I made a mistake with one or two decisions in the field which cost us 40 runs, but 189 on what proved to be a better track than it looked should have been a relatively simple task. I’m not going to make wholesale changes, I’m hoping that people will reflect on their own personal displays and perform better next week. If not then perhaps it is time to see if someone else can get more out of the players”.
