Having become Divisional Champions with a week to spare and achieving promotion to Division 3B next season, Reed 2nd XI ended their 2019 League campaign with a tightly fought match against Ampthill’s Second Team at The Green on Saturday.

Richard Barlow fell early to the bowling of Devon Brooke (8-2-33-3), leaving Marcus Martin (43) and Chris Jackson (48) to rebuild. Martin fell to the accuracy of Passman (10-3-23-2) and so too did James Sandford for (18). Jackson deserved a fifty but fell two short when given out LBW. Skipper Ed Garrott (42) and Marcus Baker made a 40-run partnership for the sixth wicket before Garrott became the second victim of Kieran Smith (10-1-51-3) again given out LBW. The returning Brooke and Smith took three more wickets to leave Reed on 201 for 9 at the end of their fifty over allocation.

Reed opened their bowling attack with Toby Fynn (7-1-16-1) who was returning from injury and Matt Giblin (6-2-19-1). Ampthill started tentatively with their openers looking to preserve their wickets rather than force the pace. Giblin produced a great in swinger to bowl R Smith for 15 leaving the visitors on 27-1 in the tenth over. Skipper Haxell and Degnan built a 69 second wicket partnership to bring Ampthill back into the game. Karl Ward (10-4-12-0) bowled tightly and was unlucky not to take a wicket. Ampthill were then helped by some wayward Reed bowling as they conceded 18 wides and 5 no balls in an extras total of 33. Rupert Martin was forced to leave the field with a major hand injury part way during his fifth over. However, Reed held their nerve in the closing overs with skipper Garrott (8-0-41-2), Matt Bowles (9.3-1-33-1) and Man Of The Match Marcus Martin (3-0-16-3) taking wickets regularly to leave Ampthill on 191-8 at the end of their innings.

Skipper Ed Garrott paid tribute to his team’s performance throughout the season. “To go through the season losing just one match, is brilliant. Chris Jackson and James Sandford have been great with the bat and Matt Giblin, Karl Ward, Matt Bowles and Marcus Martin have had a major impact with the ball too. Our fielding has saved a lot of runs in each game. All these plus points should be major positives in Division 3B next season”.

Reed 201-9 in 50 Overs (30 points) beat Ampthill 191-8 in 50 Overs (16 points) by 10 runs.

Match Report submitted by Neil Haslam.