A youthful Reed side played host to Camden CC at The Green on Sunday. Reed skipper Rob Lankester won the toss and elected to bat on what looked a very nice wicket.
Facing a tight bowling attack, Reed openers Richard Barlow and Toby Fynn started slowly but positively, putting the rare loose deliveries to the boundary in the early overs. Fynn (8) was the first batsman to fall, looking to advance down the wicket one too many times, with an efficient piece of wicket-keeping seeing him stumped. In at 3 was Rhodri Hughes (15), who looked impressive until he was dismissed with an unfortunate leading edge up in the air. Tom Nussey (33) and James Crockford (30) also displayed some stylish strokes to place Reed in a commanding position leading into the final overs of their innings. In the midst of this, Barlow started to accelerate, and swiftly passed 100 following a string of boundaries. Shortly after, this classy innings came to an end, with Richard dismissed for 111. Contributions from Ross Gardner (10), Owen Hughes (8) and Rob Lankester (19 not out) in the latter part of the innings saw Reed finish on 249-8 from their 40 overs.
In response, the Camden openers made their intentions very clear from the off, with defensive shots being a rarity. After being punished for a couple of looseners, the experienced Steve Hughes quickly dismissed Camden’s opener in the first over. Sam Rice and Steve Hughes remained unfazed by Camden’s attacking start, with Hughes (8-1-27-2) picking up a second wicket in his exceptional spell. Rice (8-0-27-0) also proved economical, and was incredibly unlucky to not pick up a wicket in his spell after several chances came and went. James Crockford (7-1-13-3) then mopped-up Camden’s middle-order, from which point the outcome of the tie seemed almost inevitable. Short spells from Owen Hughes (4-1-14-1), Joe Graves (4-1-15-0), Rhodri Hughes (3-0-14-0), Rob Lankester (4-1-9-0) and Tom Nussey (2-0-8-0) slowed Camden’s run rate further. Despite batting the full 40 overs, the visitors ended on 131-8.
In contrast to what the scorecard suggests, the game remained competitive for the most part, with Reed eventually running out comfortable winners by a margin of 118 runs.
Match Report submitted by RAL.
