Reed started their season with a bang, as they cruised to a dominating 83 run victory over Old Albanian thanks to an all round display with bat, ball and in the field.
Winning the toss and electing to bat on a pitch that appeared to offer more support to the batting side, it was quickly proven that there was some life for bowlers with the new ball, as Heslam (33) and Curtis (14) struggled initially to master the fast bowling of C. Hussey (16-2-65-0) and A Jones (9-0-51-0) as bounce varied considerably.
However, when the new ball lost its hardness, Heslam and Curtis found batting a great deal easier and grafted a solid platform of 43 before Curtis cut to point. Once again, Heslam teamed up with Chris Jackson (91) to bring the score to 64 before a mix up between the batsmen cost Heslam his wicket. However, with Tom Fulk (31), Jackson took the reins and forged ahead with a responsible, and at times belligerent innings that took him closer to his first century of the season. Ably supported by Fulk, the pair tore into the left arm wrist spin of T Preest, until Fulk played a lazy shot to be caught at midwicket, and Chris Jackson was eventually run out 9 runs short of his century.
William Clarke (0), on the back of a solid innings the weekend before, was dismissed with ease, and it was left to Simon Jackson (23*) and Marcus Martin (8*) to pinch cheeky singles and run hard between the wickets in the closing overs to bring the score to 216-5 off their allotted 53 overs.
With the absence this season of Michael Berks and early season injury to Andy Young, Reed opened with Graham Wilson (10-1-39-1) who bowled some tight inswing deliveries in conjunction with Peter Tidey (17.2-2-41-6). However, responsible and classy batting from skipper and Old Albanian coach M Dale (46) saw the hosts race to 75 off 18 overs. The odds were firmly stacked in favour of Old Albanian, but they did not count for Tidey, whose wiley swingers trapped Dale LBW. Reed, having recently taken the new ball, introduced Andrew Emms (4-0-20-0) to the attack, and subsequently William Clarke (10-0-42-3). Tidey and Clarke bowled devastatingly in tandem as they exploited swing and seam movement, Clarke producing shades of his pace from previous seasons, to reduce the run rate significantly and take key wickets at fundamental moments. Ably supported in the field (Heslam taking 3 catches in the covers, one of which was a stunning one handed dive). Old Albanian slowly slipped to 133 all out in 40 overs missing out on a batting point narrowly, leaving them languishing near bottom of the table after the first game.
James Heslam was delighted: “We really pulled together today, stitching a solid batting performance together with decent fielding and tight challenging bowling. It’s a great start to our league season, and we really can’t wait to fully get going”
