On Saturday, Reed ll’s started life in Saracens Division 7 with a draw at home to a dogged Botany Bay ll’s. Reed lost the toss and were asked to bat. Openers William Heslam and Phil Frenay got off to a solid start and both were finding the boundary regularly. Heslam in particular looked in fine fettle considering it was the first time he had picked up a bat this year. The pair moved reed along to 60 before Frenay was caught and bowled by McCabe for 22.
This brought newly appointed captain Marcus Martin to the crease. Along with Heslam, he found the boundary on regularly occassions looking for any gap in the field, particularly peppering the 3rd man boundary with a devastating late cut. Heslam brought up his 50 and never looked troubled. Martin also brought up his 50 and continued to push on as the run rate accellerated. The pair took the score past 200 before Martin bought up his century. A fine knock, which was fluent,classy and one that clearly meant a lot to the new skipper. Heslam soon joined Martin in the 100 club, after hanging around in the 90s for a while, he made it to a chanceless 100. Heslam added just 1 more run however before he holed out trying to up the run rate. A few late boundaries from Martin (119*) and some good running from Karl Ward (4*), saw Reed to an impressive 258-2 Declared in 44 overs. McCabe was the pick of the Botany Bay bowlers in a tough start to the season for their bowling attack.
After tea, Reed opening the bowling with the burly Jack Tidey and Rupert Martin. Tidey in particular looked dangerous, beating the bat and finding the edge regularly. It was Tidey who got the initial breakthrough when he bowled the Bay opener and then had the other caught behind by his father Tim, who was making his return to Reed after a big money transfer in the closed season. Ed Garrott and Peter Tidey, then bowled in tandem with both having little luck, beating the bat on several occassions and troubling the Bay batsmen throughout. On another day, the pair would have wrapped the game up. Garrott did however snare a couple of Bay wickets but the captain Banerjee was going strong and played his way to a powerful half centrury.
Alex Kelly came into the attack and changed the swing of the game . Bay were going along nicely and looked favourites, until Kelly came on and took 3 wickets and Karl Ward chipped in with a brilliant direct hit run out. Kelly bowled with good bounce and accuracy, this proved to be the undoing of the Bay batsmen. Jack Tidey (18-4-61-2) returned up the hill as Reed looked to get the final wickets, however Botany Bay’s tail set up shop and blocked their way to a draw.
Reed can be happy with their start to the season and can be encouraged by some of the performances on display. In particular Martin and Heslam, who were unfortunate not to be on the winning side on the day.
