Reed’s Sunday second team hosted Waresley for a 40/40 friendly at the Green. With the visitors team made up with just a few more colts than our own Captain Peter Baker having won the toss decided to bat first. Reed had a slow and steady start reaching 20 for the first wicket in the ninth over. Opener George Greaves was then joined out in the middle by Marcus J.E. Baker, the two then went about increasing the run rate. Greaves and Baker played well notching up singles, converting them into two’s and hitting the ball hard for several boundaries. They had been able to fend off most of the opposition bowling until Baker (59) was out LBW, ending their 94 run partnership for the second wicket in just 14 over’s. Greaves (40) following soon after, bowled. Reed then lost some cheap wickets but Kallum Ward (21), James Bloor (36) and Alan Ward (14) batted well to get Reed to a good score of 217 for 6. The final partnership of Bloor and A. Ward put the fielding side under extra burden in the closing over’s with some quick singles, adding to Warseley’s annoyance having given away 45 runs in extras. Card pick of the Warseley bowlers 4-0-19-3.
Despite their young side Warseley certainly had players who knew how to bat, opener Lawrence gave a fine performance for his 52, Key (33), Bowls (16*) also added runs as well as brothers D. Patel (26) and N. Patel (51). As for the bowlers Matt Giblin (6-0-43-1) bowled well but was often hit unjustly to the boundary but picked up a wicket for his woes. Neil Haslam (7-0-37-1), G. Greaves (6-1-22-1), J. Bloor (6-0-26-0) and K.L. Ward (6-0-27-0) also gave impressive performances with the ball. Despite the odd mistake Reeds fielding was good especially from Will Heslam (5-0-32-2) who as well as his own wickets ran two high scoring batters out. With the opposition creeping towards their target, A. Ward (3.1-0-7-3) was called upon to wipe up the last three wickets and in the final over with Warseley 7 runs shy he took the tenth wicket leaving Reed victors. All in all a very impressive all round performance from the Reed side showing promise for the rest of the season.
