In a topsy turvy league game at Preston on Saturday Reed unfortunately came off second best. Reed were on top on numerous occasions before good bowling and great fielding from Preston saw them win and go ahead of Reed in the Hertfordshire league. Graham Wilson after his 9-fa last year at Preston was the pick of the Reed bowlers taking 7-59 in 17.1 overs. However after Preston were 102-8, Reed should have done better than finally bowling the home side out for 200, mainly thanks to super rear guard action from Mark Walters (48). Without 1st team Captain James Heslam, Tom Greaves and Liam McKechnie opened the batting knowing they had 55 overs to reach the total set by Preston. The openers were involved in a calamitous run out leaving McKechnie standing at the same end as Greaves when the Preston keeper was taking the bails off at the other end and thus running McKechnie out. Stand in captain Chris Jackson tried to rebuild after this early disaster and played a great captains innings of 57. His only support was 31 from the returning Phil Frenay before Reed were bowled out for 168. Chris said "that my 57 and Grahams 7-59 become insignificant when we lose. I won't make the excuse that by missing 3 ever presents this weekend was the reason we lost. We did not perform to the level I would expect and I hope we get going at home to Knebworth Park on Saturday

On paper the Reed win over Potters Bar IIs looks an easy win, however with the rain on Saturday reducing the overs Reed had it was a great win and a fabulous run chase. Reed were asked to bowl and Graham Wilson and Lee Johnson both again started brilliantly finding the right areas straight away. Johnson was beating the batsman with pace and Wilson similarly with subtle movement both ways. Wilson got the first 2 wickets, firstly with an easy LBW decision for the umpire and secondly with what could only be described as ball of the season. With Potters Bar batsman at the other end to experienced Palmer (74) deciding to play some interesting shots to tight bowling, Potters Bar continued to lose wickets. Wilson bowled 13 overs 2-45 and Johnson 17 overs 2-53, before being replaced by Will Clarke and Will Dobson. Clarke returned to the quality of bowling he last produced in 2005 taking 1-26 off 10, whilst Dobson produced a spell of variety in his 2-54. With Potters Bar scoring 185-7, Reed knew they would have to get off to a good start and this is exactly what James Heslam and Liam McKechnie did. Reed took the attack to Potters Bar but still managing to defend when the delivery deserved it. Reed raced to 83 off 17 overs with Potters Bar using 5 different and unsuccessful bowling options in this short time. With rain looming all around Heslam (36) was first to go playing a very expansive shot trying to quicken the run rate before the heavens opened. With no Duckworth Lewis Method in the Herts League, when overs are lost to rain, batting teams end up having to score the [...]

Reed first team finished the season with an emphatic win and in doing so condemned Old Albanians to relegation. It was a great all round performance from Reed. James Heslam scored 43, Phil Frenay 28 and young Marcus Martin a quick fire 35. Vice Captain Chris Jackson however scored a masterful not out 100, with his last run being scored off the last ball of the Reed innings after Martin had kindly run himself out for Jackson to reach the landmark. Reed scored 247-4. Old Albanians never looked like getting near the Reed score and were bowled out for 167 giving Reed a convincing win. Wickets were also shared around with Graham Wilson taking 4 and Lee Johnson, Tom Greaves and Ed Garrott taking 2 each. Vice Captain Chris Jackson, was " more than pleased with the all round team performance including his own. We have finished the season really strongly and after losing 3 key players this year, it has been a magnificent achievement to finish 8th out of 20 teams in such a strong league. James (Heslam) did so well taking over from Bernie (Morss) mid season and all the lads have upped their efforts immensely after we lost Andy Young (moved to South Africa) and being without Tom Fulk (due to work commitments) for most of the season. Our overseas player Liam McKechnie fitted in really well and scored lots of runs at the back end of the season and we would hope to have him back next year. Hopefully we have set the platform for a good 2011 with lots of second teamers trying to make their way in to the first team too.

Reed out played Northwood from start to finish at home on Saturday but could not manage to bowl them out or more importantly hold their catches to win the game. Skipper James Heslam and Tom Greaves (20) got Reed off to another good start putting on 52 for the 1st wicket in 10 overs before Greaves was 1st to go. The loss of wickets all through the Reed innings did not stop Heslam who led the team from the front. Heslam had good partnerships with Chris Jackson (17), Ed Garrott (23), Will Dobson (20) and Simon Jackson. Heslam scored 124 off 116 balls, including 20 4s helping Reed. An improvising 31 not out from Lee Johson saw Reed to declare on 255 in 51 overs. Reed bowled well throughout the Northwood innings and regularly took wickets. Opening bowling Graham Wilson took 5-33 in 14 overs, before Reed turned to spin. Dobson (11 over 2 for 18) bowled superbly from one end and from the other end Heslam shuffled his other bowlers. Reed had Northwood 49-6 before the opposition scratched their way to 121-9 with 10 overs left. This bought in Dhanatunge to the wicket who without doubt was not a number 11 and he and his captain tried to bat out the rest of the game. In this 10 over period Reed dropped 4 hard catches but Northwood dug in well to draw. Only Lewis (53) showed any resistance for the visitors. Heslam said “I was disappointed not to win however the scorebook shows how much we outplayed them. We got 6 more points than them which is always a bonus and it was a shame that we just did not take the catches at [...]

In the only game played in division 2, Reed stuffed a very poor Northchurch side. Despite heavy showers, a coastal beach of sand and Reed captain James Heslam using paper towels on the wicket ensured the victory and that Reed will finish mid table in the league. Graham Wilson and Lee Johnson bowled 42 of the 45 overs Reed bowled. Wilson bowled tightly with his 2 for 70 whilst Johnson ripped through the limp Northchurch batting line up with a season best 6-60. Rain mid way through the innings shortened the game and got the sand and paper towels on the wicket Tom Calder top scored for Northchurch with 56 before being caught by a sharp catch from 'keeper Simon Jackson. Northchurch surprisingly declared on 140-8 with a ball to spare. In the shortened reply interestingly the visitors opened with slow bowlers and Tom Greaves and James Heslam got Reed of to the best possible start putting on 87 in 13 overs before Heslam went for 39. Greaves fell shortly after for 52 before young Marcus Martin went for a duck. With Reed now at 93-3 it was left to Chris Jackson and Liam Mckechnie to take Reed to a much deserved victory with 11 overs left. Jackson finishing on 28 and Mckecknie on 26. Skipper James Heslam was ecstatic with the win. "We did a lot of work when the heavens opened in their innings to make the pitch playable. The umpires were great and I feel sorry for Northchurch who only got 5 points which will virtually relegate them".

Reed were the unlucky losers in a game that went down to the final ball of the match at home to Luton Town & Indians on Saturday. With Luton requiring 2 off the final over with 1 wicket left, the ever improving spin bowler Will Dobson (3-70) managed to bowl 4 dots balls before Luton managed to scramble a single on the 5th ball. This meant that Luton could win or the game could be tied but a miss hit shot by the Luton number 10 saw Luton scrap through. Reed batted first and quickly saw them at 39-3 after some good bowling by Bashir (6-47). The quick wickets bought Chris Jackson and Phil Frenay together who batted superbly against a strong Luton team. The two class batsman took Reed to 174 before Frenay was out for 76. Young Ed Garrett showed maturity beyond his years in scoring 26 not out. Jackson was unfortunate to miss out on a ton when he was out trying to bring this up in fine style in the final over of the innings for 96, with Reed finishing on 243-6. With Luton having Rajasthan Royals IPL player Dhiren Salvi in their batting line up, Reed knew they would have to bowl and field well to have a chance of winning this game. They got off to a great start after two sharp pieces of glove work from Simon Jackson seeing Luton stumble to 37-2. With Salvi now in with Naik (71), Luton started to take the game to Reed. With Captain James Heslam shuffling his attack, including his 3 spinners, he managed to get Salvi out for a classy 78 thanks to some great spin bowling from Garrett. This [...]

Reed were surprised to be offered the first chance to bowl on the track and Graham Wilson and Lee Johnson found the right areas straight away. They managed to tie the Hemel batsman down, giving them no bad balls and with the hope the wicket would do something for them. With Hemel on 23, Wilson got the first wicket after a great catch by Chris Jackson and then the flood gates opened with Johnson ripping through Hemel leaving them at 54-7. Johnson got his first 5 wicket haul of the season and the man of the match award taking 5-43 off 13 overs. Wilson bowled throughout the innings taking 3-54 off 19 and Jack Tidey cleared up the tail taking 2-17 off his 5 overs. Reed caught some great catches from Stuey Smith, Liam McKechnie and 2 from Jackson in bowling Hemel out for 125 in 37 overs. With Reed missing 2 regular first team batsman and having a testing 15 overs to bat before tea it was going to be a tough session. However Hemel did not have the bowlers that Reed had and interestingly opened with a spinner, on a wicket that was doing something for the seamers. Reed lost young Tom Greaves with the score on 14 however with Greaves out, Aussie McKechnie came in and gave them no grace. McKechnie and captain James Heslam took the game to Hemel and proved that it was good bowling and not the wicket that bowled out Hemel. Reed reached 61-1 at tea, which without doubt was the best and most delightful away tea that we had this season (so thank you for that Hemel). Luckily with the game nearly won all the Reed players [...]

Reed were away at Harpenden IIs on Saturday, in what turned in to an enthralling game. With Harpenden still having their coaches comments ringing in their ears about not being good enough to get promoted, Reed knew Harpenden would come at them hard from the start. Batting first, James Heslam and Liam McKechnie played superbly against the best opening attack they had seen all season. Reed players were hoping the slow start would lay a solid start to their innings. Despite having only 28 off 13 overs, Heslam and McKechnie slowly built the pace up throughout the innings. Both reaching 50 shortly after each other and matching each other throughout the innings. With the field now spread Heslam and McKechnie, continued to stroke the ball in to gaps and dispensing the bad balls for 4. Heslam was the first to go for 90, after playing the captains part in the opening partnership of 181 in less than 40 overs. Heslam was out playing an expansive shot to take the game away from the home side. McKechnie reached his first league hundred for Reed, before getting out shortly after for 107, hitting 15 4s and facing 183, in a superfluous innings. Chris Jackson managed to keep the scoreboard ticking scoring 20, however all the other Reed batsman did not have time to get in as Reed declared on 244-7 Reed without Graham Wilson, 1 part of their inform bowling attack knew that had to bowl well from the start and get the best of the luck possible. Kallum Ward (1-24) making his first appearance for the first team of the season got the interesting looking overseas player our with his second ball, with the umpire having [...]

Match report to follow

Reeds good run of performances came to a holt away at high flying Flitwick on Saturday. Reed got off to a rare poor start, seeing themselves struggling at 24 for 4. Phil Frenay and Will Dobson then set about adding some stability to the innings. Dobson with some first class shots and Frenay showing resilience in getting Reed going before Frenay went first for 25 and Dobson shortly after for 27. A few boundaries from Jack Tidey (19) and some stubbornness from Simon Jackson and pinch hitting from four hitting Graham Wilson saw Reed limp to 118. Jason Twist was the pick of the Flitwick bowlers taking 4-28. After a lovely tea which even involved sledging from new Flitwick cheerleader Big Phil, Reed went out hoping to get an early breakthrough to make the game interesting. However captain Ferguson and Underwood had other ideas. Ferguson was made to jump around by the Reed bowlers however put away the bad ball away very well indeed. Whilst Underwood scratched around for dear life. Drop catches again were Reeds downfall and if they had managed to take one of the tough chances, it may have exposed the rest of the Flitwick line up. Ferguson raced to 70 out of their first 92 before Underwood was beaten by the pace of Lee Johnson with Jackson taking a diving leg side catch. Johnson got wicket number 2 and then clean bowled Ferguson shortly after but with the wickets coming too late, Flitwick went through their target in less than 21overs. Disappointed Reed captain James Heslam, “felt that the game was a slight blip in our recent very good batting performances. They bowled well, whilst we could have been slightly luckier [...]