As I sit here on this Sunday morning gazing through the window of my study, the sun is shining outside, we have a further round of the National Village Cup to look forward to this afternoon, and the Saracens Herts Cricket League Table in front of me shows REED Cricket Club sitting at the top of SHCL Division 1!! The 1st Xl’s of the modest little towns of Hertford, St Albans, Luton, Hitchin, Ampthill, Flitwick, and Watford (Langleybury!) sit respectfully in the shadows below. All is well with the world!To add to the glow, further down the Emailed SHCL Results page we see Reed 2nd Xl sitting 2nd in SHCL Division 7, and Reed 3rd Xl sitting 4th in SHCL Division 9. A 3 wins out of 3 matches, 90 Point Saturday, behind us. Two teams out on duty today, lets hope they can be equally successful. The Heslam car didn’t make it too far yesterday owing to family commitments but it did make it to Reed where our 1st Xl were entertaining Flitwick and the match eventually threw up a notable talking point. Does “Sledging” the opposition actually do any good? Even up to the early 1990’s sledging in recreational Cricket was barely in evidence. The odd uncouth “colonial” visitor might demonstrate his vulgarity, and seek to question everyone’s parentage, but by and large matches went by in relative tranquillity with encouragement and mutual respect for quality moments being to the fore in any comments/banter. What then changed was the better televising of the national game. Stump microphones began to pick up some of the less pleasant asides which had been in the international game for years, particularly when competing with antipodeans! In addition, [...]

Last week I sat here on the Sunday morning gazing through the window of my study and as I wrote: The sun was shining outside, we had a further round of the National Village Cup to look forward to that afternoon, and the Saracens Herts Cricket League Table in front of me showed me REED Cricket Club sitting at the top of SHCL Division 1!! The 1st Xl’s of the modest little towns of Hertford, St Albans, Luton, Hitchin, Ampthill, Flitwick, and Watford (Langleybury!) sat respectfully in the shadows below. All was well with the world! To add to the glow, further down the Emailed SHCL Results page we saw Reed 2nd Xl sitting 2nd in SHCL Division 7, and Reed 3rd Xl sitting 4th in SHCL Division 9. A 3 wins out of 3 matches, 90 Point Saturday, behind us. What a difference a week makes!! What a great leveller the game is! Dumped ignominiously out of the Village Cup last Sunday, and a disappointing Saturday this weekend with 3 x losses in 4 SHCL matches, and only our 2nd and 4th Xl’s Xl achieving “double digit” points returns on the weekends efforts. The 2nds narrowly failed to complete what would have been a good win against Southgate Adelaide, and a decimated and youthful 4th Xl failed narrowly to contain an experienced Wheathampstead 3rd’s. All our Reed teams suffered from some poor availability, some of it through very late disruptive and damaging withdrawals, cascaded downwards from the very top team. To ensure the avoidance of doubt, the following discourse comprises a “discussion point” not any personal criticism. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone! Points wise it was a very poor [...]

As I sit here in my study with the rays of the sun blazing though my french-windows, I want to claim a share in a Reed Cricket Club record that I think has been created recently. On the 11th May 2013, the Reed Fourth XI played away against Datchworth. Included in the team were three veteran Reed players, Ian Roberts, Alan Ward and me. You might not be aware that all three of us are Grandfathers! Alan's middle son Keiran has two children, Ian's daughter Lucy gave birth to her own daughter in February and my elder son, James, became a father on the 29th April when my grandson, Jonty, was born.Thus, when Ian, Alan and I played together at Datchworth, we formed a trio of Granddads. I know of no other instance of this happening in the Club's history although I can't be absolutely certain that some of those older generation of players in the fifties and sixties were not of similar age to us and were possibly doting grandparents. (They were probably only 20 or 30 something years old although from the images in the photographs they all looked and dressed as if they were sixty!) Certainly, there are other Club members who are already grandparents, but they don't play. Also active in the Club currently, JQH is a grandfather several times over, but he has not yet played this season. Perhaps if John plays with us we could push the bar even higher and create an all-time record of 4 Granddads turning-out for the same team. A quartet that would be hard to beat. Unfortunately, Mr. Roberts has delayed that scenario from happening for a few weeks more by involving himself with a ladder, height and gravity. (Ian - we [...]

The best weekend SHCL Saturday points-wise for our Club in quite some time with the 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds, all winning, and the 4ths getting a good draw. Unfortunately Sundays Herts Cup match at Reed saw a significant fall off in performance and an embarrassing reverse! Flaming June has arrived and we bid goodbye to a damp May and a rather mixed start to the new season. The Saturday 1st and 2nd Xl’s have done pretty well. Our newly promoted 1st Xl have a 66% strike rate, having won 2 of their 3 completed SHCL Division 1 fixtures, and the 2nd Xl have a 60% SHCL Div. 7 success rate having won 3 of 5. On Sunday morning the 2nd Xl stood in 2nd place in their league but by this coming Friday they will slide back to 3rd as the outcome of the “Selection-Gate” SHCL enquiry docks them 14 penalty points in relation to team selection for the opening match of the season. Disappointing, but to be honest, more than fair! The 3rd Xl are in mid table having suffered from the very variable May availability throughout the Club, and the 4th Xl of course bear the real brunt of the same problem, having had to concede 1 match and suffering “Domino effect” team weakness in several others. Sunday Cricket has been a much more disappointing area for us in May and early June. As National Village Cup holders, and after a good first round performance against Eton Bray, we surprisingly, and embarrassingly, collapsed chasing a modest total against Wheathampstead in the next NVC round and exited the competition. Two weeks later, admittedly fielding a weaker team, we suffered the same fate in the [...]

The best weekend of the season so far with a “120 Point” SHCL Saturday (albeit with a 30Pt concession to our 4th Xl!) and a comprehensive win at Reed for our Sunday 1st Xl. The only slight blip on the landscape was the Sunday 2nds narrowly failing to win an exciting, enjoyable and high scoring encounter away at Knebworth Blues. Our 1st Xl continued their recent demolition of the teams of the major town and cities in Hertfordshire, following last weeks crushing of Hitchin with a comprehensive win over St Albans. A thoroughly competent all-round performance saw the home side bowled out for 200 in under 49 overs and Reed comfortably knock off the required total with 8 overs to spare and only 3 wickets down. The equally in form 2nd Xl added to the diocese city’s need for divine intervention by skitteling their 3rd Xl for 72 and then knocking off the runs for the loss of only 2 wickets. The 3rd Xl had the privilege of a joyous trip to the Rickmansworth 2nd ground but had the consolation of returning with the full 30 points. The southwest Herts misery was completed when Chorleywood lV made a late concession to Reed lV giving our 4ths their first 30Pts of the season! A disappointing day for our 11 Cricketers to have no match at very late notice but the £100 Fine that should be awarded to Reed will come in handy! Sundays CCC fixture against East Side got off to a worrying and chaotic start when the visitors arrived very late for the fixture. However, once the match started it provided more lengthy entertainment than the previous Sundays match, but unsurprisingly before a much smaller [...]

Another good weekend for our Club spoilt only by the rain wiping out our 1st Xl fixture at Ampthill where we had made a good start reducing the home team to 23-2 off 10 overs before the heavens opened and the promised rain arrived and flooded the ground. Only 2 of the 5 Division 1 matches did survive the weather and Totteridge Millhillians took advantage of their lucky weather window to make up ground and leapfrog the 4 sides previously above them to top the table. 85 SHCL matches were lost to the weather but in the main Reed fared better than most with 3 of our 4 teams beating the elements, and also beating the opposition! The early 1st Xl abandonment meant a significant boost to the crowd watching the 2nd Xl at Reed, and also to the bar profits! The 2nds had to chase down the 179-9 set by Potters Bar 3rds in a rain reduced 44 overs, and after an early scare when we lost 3 quick wickets, Ed Garrott and Stuart Smith both produced quality innings, each rewarded with a half century, and the required total was reached in only 27 overs. The threatening skies were then incredibly replaced with bright sunshine as the sun shone on the righteous and the 30 points that took the 2nds into 2nd place in the league table were celebrated. By this stage the crowd in the clubhouse had been swelled by our returning 3rd Xl, back up the road from our second ground. carrying another 30 points from an emphatic 10 wicket win over Cockfosters 3rds that took us to the top of Division 9. The high spirited gathering was completed by the arrival [...]