For the 2021 Season Reed Under 11s entered the Herts Junior Cricket League “Hard Ball – 11-a-Side” format competition and have been placed in League 4 with opponents from Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Datchworth.
To date, with 6 of the 10 league matches played, Reed have a 100% Winning Record, and sit top of the League, clear by 33 points. Due to the extremely wet May weather, Reeds first league match did not take place until 1st June when on a fine summers evening at Reed they dismissed Stevenage for just 36 before comfortably knocking off the required runs scoring their 37 – 2 in just 9 overs. Reed Captain Josh Heslam produced the first of several devastating opening spells of bowling this season with 3 wickets, supported by Harrison S, Jon Green and younger brother Eddie Heslam picking up the remainder of the Stevenage wickets. Josh Heslam and Ethan Fox then began what has become a prolific opening partnership taking the team to the verge of victory before two late wickets and the winning runs assured by Heslam and Reed Number 4 Henry Cook.
The following week saw 3 wins in 4 evenings! On Monday night Reed recorded a comfortable win against Hitchin (Reed 131-5 off 20 Overs – Hitchin 98 All Out off 18.5 Overs). After a fast scoring but eventful first few overs, Reed were thankful to a fine 5th wicket partnership by Joseph Rhodes and Rory Longland who both reached retirement scores of 25 and 28. With the ball Josh Heslam and Toby Cook tore through the Hitchin top order with 3 wickets a piece to set Reed on the path to victory. The boys then followed up on the Tuesday by heavily defeating Letchworth (Reed 129 – 5 in 20 Overs – Letchworth 42 All Out in 11 Overs). Josh Heslam and Ethan Fox setting up the victory with 25 retired and 24 respectively and despite a quieter spell in the middle overs Luke Wilson and Eddie Heslam ensured a powerful finish to the innings with some fine late order hitting. With the ball Josh Heslam, Jon Green and Finley Brown did the damage with 2 or 3 wickets a piece. Now on a real roll, on the Thursday Reed played their return fixture against Stevenage and recorded another fine win, this time by over a hundred runs – Reed 155 – 9 off 20 Overs – Stevenage 54 all out. This was a dominant display by the Reed top order batsman with Josh Heslam, Fox, Rhodes, Henry Cook and Jamie Rogers all scoring between 15-30 runs at a rapid rate taking Reed to 111-4 after just 11 overs and then sensible batting by the middle/lower order ensuring the overs were batted out with Matthew Jackson and Oliver Kimsey batting well together during this period. With the ball wickets were shared around with Kimsey the leading marksman on this occasion.
Moving on 5 days, and the return Hitchin match saw Reed record their 5th win from 5 matches, Reed scoring 147 – 7 in their 20 overs before restricting Hitchin to just 110 – 4 off their 20 overs. Josh Heslam and Ethan Fox delivered another fine opening stand both being retired on 25 runs in quick time and again strongly backed up by hard hitting from Henry Cook and Jamie Rogers with 17 and 25 retired. With a large score on the board the bowling was shared around and although Reed did not take wickets at their usual rate they were always in control of the game. Finally in this run of games, Reed visited Welwyn Garden City and secured another excellent victory scoring 130 – 7 off 20 overs and then dismissing Welwyn GC for 46. Once again Josh Heslam (25 retired) and Ethan Fox (18) got Reed off to a great start against some testing Welwyn GC bowling and with others chipping in notably Rory Longland with another important innings for the side of 10 not out. The bowling was again led by Josh Heslam this time producing a hat-trick in his opening two over spell and backed up by all of the other Reed bowlers notably Joseph Rhodes with 2 wickets and inspirational wicket keeper Ethan Fox with two lightening run outs to dismiss two of Hitchin’s top order and then a crucial last wicket by Henry Cook before the heavy rain arrived!
It has been really positive to see in all of the matches all of the Reed players enthusiasm and intensity in the field and supporting of their teammates has been superb and it has been a real team effort with all of the boys involved in each of the games participating in some great cricket to watch. The squad look well set to make the knockout stages of the Hertfordshire competition with the 1st place and 3 x best 2nd place teams qualifying for the quarter finals in Mid-July. Hopefully something to look forward to!
Report submitted by James Heslam.
