Rickmansworth II

Rickmansworth, themselves with feint promotion aspirations before the start of play, won the toss and made the decision to insert Reed into bat on what looked a very green wicket. Reed sent out openers Fergus Martin and Phil Frenay and the duo did very well to negotiate the new ball as it swung and seemed around. The score was approaching 75 when the first wicket fell, with Fergus getting a leading edge off of the leg spinner and departing for a solid and important 20.

This wicket brought skipper Marcus Martin to the crease, and he and his VC Phil Frenay continued the good early work and set about showing the reason they are widely regarded as the 2 of the premier batsmen in the league. Martin had a couple of scares early on, but Frenay was imperious and punished anything full in quite a thunderous fashion. The pair took the score well beyond the 150 mark, and at a good pace, as Martin got in and began to also find the boundary. The score had reached 180-1 when Frenay was adjudged LBW for a brilliant 80. Richard Johnson (2), Karl Ward (12) and Roddi Liebenberg all came and went whilst trying to up the tempo further as the score past the 200 mark. Martin was then also given LBW and departed for a well made and gritty 70. Tom Walsingham (24 Not Out) came to the crease and played with freedom and style, whilst Alex Kelly (4) and the one-legged Matt Bowles (1 Not Out) helped Reed amass an ominous looking total of 242-7 declared after 51 Overs.

Despite murmurings from some of the Rickmansworth players at tea that 242 was “well below par”, Reed felt pretty confident, especially given the fact that the pitch had misbehaved early on with the new ball.

Captain Cus opted to open the bowling with Pete Tidey and Tom Walsingham as Reed went in search of early wickets. Walsingham bowled with excellent pace and control, but it was the evergreen Tidey that made the early breakthrough as he clung on to a sharp caught and bowled in only the 3rd over. Tidey was then rewarded again as Matt Bowles took catch of the season in at short midwicket to leave the homeside reeling at 10-2. Things only got worse as Tidey ripped through the top order with figures of 14-5-10-5, thanks to further good catches from Frenay and Walsingham, and Walsingham (7-1-25-1) himself also got the wicket he deserved. Rickmansworth were shell shocked and at 30-6, the end was nigh. Some late freeing of the arms by the tail helped the score creep up to 55, but Alex Kelly (6.4-6-11-4) mopped up the tail, taking the last 4 wickets to give Reed a huge victory margin of 188 runs.

Reed go into their final 4 league games knowing that promotion, and even the league title is now firmly in their own hands.