Reed were disappointed on Saturday at home to Shenley Village as they lost by 5 wickets.
The visitors won the toss and put Reed into bat. With a little bit in the wicket after overnight rain this looked a good decision particularly when despite another reasonable opening partnership between James (18) and Will Heslam (42) Reed then collapsed to 75-6 in the 23rd over. Although the lower middle order of Sean Tidey (22), Mitchell Cooper (27*) and Phil Lill (17) improved matters for Reed it wasn’t long before the home side were all out for 156 with the battling Cooper unfortunately running out of partners. Reeds cause was not helped by the availability to Shenley of Northants U19 bowler Charlie Clarke who took 5-52 in decent seam bowling conditions.
In reply Reed needed early wickets which they got but unfortunately chasing a small target Shenley scored runs freely except off Tom Walsingham who along with Tom Greaves helped reduce Shenley to 29-2 off 5 overs. However the fast scoring continued through the Shenley innings so despite other breakthroughs by Cooper, Toby Fynn and Lill the visitors reached 159-5 in quick time with state New Zealander cricketer Tom Bruce top scoring with 51.
Reed will be firmly looking to bounce back when they travel to West Herts for an important game this Saturday.
