In the second of four summer league matches, a developing Reed team travelled to St. Margaretsbury, who fielded a team strengthened by their district and county players. Reed won the toss and elected to bowl.
SM started strongly, with boundaries in the first 2 overs, but Daniel Vincent took a liking to the Zinger stumps – sending the flashing bails flying on three occasions, finishing on 3-0-3-10. Callum Ricketts supporting with 0-11 off his first 2 overs (ending with 3-0-0-18)
Gethin Hill followed with a wicket off his first ball, ending with 2-0-1-8. Eddie Cook trapping the SM batsman LBW for 0, ending 2-0-1-10…. At this point, Reed were on top, with SM on 54 for 5 off 9 overs, but the SM middle order proved resilient against the developing Reed bowlers.
With Reed deciding to share the bowling among every player, SM took advantage – scoring strongly in the middle overs and putting on a 50+ partnership before Aaron Nash took the 6th wicket caught and bowled.
Two superb run-outs curbed the run rate, with SM finishing on 126. A tough target with several of Reed’s stronger batsmen missing from the line-up.
The opening pairing of Eddie Cook and Callum Ricketts were subjected to the county-representative opening bowlers, Eddie mis-judged a ball when it kept low after 4 successive bouncers in the first over – departing without troubling the scorer…. Young Sam Dawson arrived at the crease.
Up until now, Sam had faced a maximum of 13 balls in an innings and had a top score of 3 runs. Callum and Sam dug in… And while the run rate stuttered, the sight of Sam truly enjoying himself in the middle put a smile on the manager’s face.
When Callum fell in the 15th over for 24 – agonisingly short of automatic retirement, the match was essentially over as a contest with Reed requiring 66 runs off 5 overs.
Oliver Tallis went out with a target of “not a duck”…. which he duly achieved, but was bowled shortly after (1). Tash McNamara was unable to stick around, and by the time Daniel Vincent arrived, there were only 15 balls left in the over.
The opening bowlers returned to try and claim Daniel’s prized wicket, but the wayward bowling never put Daniel in trouble.
Daniel and Sam saw out the overs and Reed finished on 72. Sam stuck it out in the middle for 67 minutes, facing 49 balls and scoring 16. Absolutely Fabulous. While this wasn’t a match-winning innings it will serve Sam well for the future – knowing that he has the ability to defend his stumps.
The St. Margaretsbury bowling was unable to get wickets…. Reed were unable to take advantage and score runs…. In an match of attrition, SM came out on top.
Reed need to manage the run rate and be more positive in their batting if they want to make an impression on this summer league.
Next Up – Bishops Stortford 1.
Match report submitted by Lee Vincent.
