Reed confirmed their place in the Hertfordshire Area Final of the Davidstow National Village Cup with an impressive win over rivals Wheathampstead on Sunday afternoon. After the defeat against them last year, Reed were determined not to fall to the same fate and stormed to a six wicket victory.
Captain James Heslam won the toss and chose to field on a slightly green deck after the large quantity of rain which saw the previous day’s game cancelled. This soon proved to be a great decision as the economical Jack Tidey (9-2-22-2) and once again impressive Tobey Fynn (9-1-36-4) made early inroads into the Wheathampstead top order.
Fynn took the first of the Reed wickets trapping Griffiths plumb LBW for just 2 and Hashmi caught behind by S Tidey for 8. Tidey then got his first wicket soon after by cleaning up McEwan for 1, leaving the visitors struggling at 11-3 Things didn’t improve for Wheathampstead as they lost more quick wickets with Fynn bowling both Griffiths and Potter for 11 and 4 retrospectively, leaving them 25-5. Tidey then bowled Kiek for just 8 leaving the visitors massively struggling on 31-6. Wheathamsptead then offered some resistance through Walayat who played aggressively on his way to 42. He was supported by Booth (8) who managed to frustrate and keep the reed attack at bay. With Booth regularly playing and missing to Ward (4-1-9-0). Booth eventually was cleaned bowled by the ever impressive Greaves (9-1-22-2). Walayat continued to be aggressive and was supported by Dabare (12). But Walayat was eventually spectacularly caught by keeper S Tidey after he top edged the ball over the keeper s head off of the bowling of Cooper (7.3-1-43-2). This left Wheathampstead in major trouble on 99-8. This soon became 100-9 as Dabare was caught off the bowling of Greaves, hitting the ball airily to cover which was comprehensively caught by W Heslam. The last pairing of N Martin and D tree (6 NO) frustrated the Reed bowlers as they put on 31 for the last wicket. Cooper finally had Martin caught on the boundary by Stuart Smith for 24. This left Reed a target 132 to win and progress to the regional final of the Davidstow National Village Cup.
Reed openers Will Heslam and Sean Tidey set about chasing down the target aggressively with Tidey smashing boundaries to parts of the ground. Tidey raced to 50 in the eighth over and proceeded to show his class by putting the bad ball away with a couple of huge sixes. Heslam then fell for 15 after chipping the ball to cover leaving the score on 93-1. Greaves fell soon after in a similar manner for 1 off the bowling of Dabare. Tidey was eventually caught on the boundary for a match winning 79 leaving the ever reliable Smith (3 No) and Jackson (18) to steady the ship and steer Reed to towards the finishing line. Jackson then fell to a dubious LBW decision with Reed on 123-4, but Ward (6 No) came in and comfortably finished the job with 15 overs to spare.
Reed will now face Langleybury in two weeks’ time in the Hertfordshire area final as they look to repeat the successes of 2012 in the National Village Cup.
