Reed were unfortunate in the end not to beat Redbourn, in a very close encounter on Saturday. Lee “red bullet” Johnson fresh from his Sky Sports show took the 9th Redbourn wicket in the final ball of the game, leaving Reed frustratingly with 1 Redbourn wicket left and Reed without a delivery to take it with.
Batting first all Reeds top 4 batsman got in on a wicket that was not easy or free scoring, especially with tight bowling and good fielding from Redbourn. Skipper James Heslam and Tom Greaves got Reed going before Greaves was first to go for 15. Heslam was just finding his form before he went for 22. Liam McKechnie and Chris Jackson then started building the partnership that looked like it was going to set a total that would win the game. McKecknie and Jackson were batting with all the style and grace of Emmy Award winning actors before both fell shortly after each other for 32.
Reed went from the comfortable 99-2 to 106-5 when Will Dobson followed shortly after, despite hitting one of the biggest 4s seen at Redbourn. Marcus Martin (21), Jack Tidey (13) and another not out from Simon Jackson (11) kept Reed going to set Redbourn 170 to win.
At tea Reed thought it was a total that could be defended or they could bowl out the opposition due to the now golf bunker look of the wicket. Redbourn got off to a slow but solid start putting on 57 in nearly 22 overs. With the solid foundation in place Reed thought that they must have batsman later in the order to play their shots. However regular wickets throughout the innings stopped this from happening. Will Dobson back from his appearance against Buckinghamshire under 25s in the week bowled superbly again taking 4-52 from his 17 overs. Young Ed Garrott bowled with enough flight and guile in his 2-45 to keep the 3rd Reed spinner in his kennel.
S Root was the pick of the batsman finishing as the not out batsman on 50 and with Redbourn not having the players to bat with him they ended up on 157 and 13 runs short despite Johnsons near last over heroics. Heslam said after the game “that we were the better side in a really enjoyable game. Throughout the whole of their innings the game could have gone either way. I was pleased with our lads as we showed good intensity and ensured the final result. With one more over no doubt we would have won the game.”
