Reed continued their fine midweek form on Tuesday evening by resoundingly crushing Foxton at Royston to take a place in the Keatley Cup finals in two weeks. Revenge was at the forefront of Reed&Mac226;s mind after Foxton knocked them out of the Cup this time last year. However, the experience gleaned from last seasons continual League promotion and form proved too much for Foxton as they slumped to a 33 run defeat. Winning the toss, Reed elected to bat. It proved to be the correct decision, as they amassed a mammoth 153 for 5 off their 15 eight ball overs, taking full advantage of some short boundaries and sloppy fielding. Tom Fulk&Mac226;s batting heroics reflected his fine form this season as he smashed an imperious 50. Club captain and 1XI skipper, Simon Jackson, was unlucky to be dismissed run out from a ricocheted drive on 12, and Stuart Smith and Chris Jackson hit 21 and 20 respectively. Solid support in the closing overs was also found in John Heslam (17) and Richard Johnson (11*). The pick of the Foxton bowlers was P.Howlett who bowled his 3 overs for a meagre 12 runs. With such a total under their belt, Reed proceeded to strangle Foxton with a defensive field and all around accurate bowling, resulting in 7 of the opposition batsmen being bowled. Opener Richard Johnson, returning impressive figures of 3-0-15-3, kept runs tight in conjunction with some trademark penetrative bowling by Peter Tidey (3-0-35-3). On their knees at 20-5, Foxton benefited from a dubious no-ball decision which allowed dangerman Goodchild (37) to strike four sixes in one over. Howlett (38) also featured with some aggressive strokes restoring them to 95 for 8, but regular wickets [...]

Reeds brave midweek side had to settle for Runners up spot in the John Barker Cup. After making up for Keatley Cup disappointments with an exciting campaign in the Herts midweek competition which included victories over Herts Division 1 and 2 opposition, Reed lost out to Division 1 Letchworth in Fridays final. Reed got off to a good start reducing their opponents to 11-2 after 2 overs thanks to good opening overs from William Clarke and Michael Berks, the latter dismissing the dangerous Bowyer first ball of the game. However Letchworth responded in excellent fashion scoring 41 runs off the next 4 overs. With the batsmen using the pace of Reeds openers Reed midweek captain James Heslam turned to the swing of Peter Tidey who soon pegged Letchworth back taking a wicket in his first over. From then on Reed tightened things up and Johnson and the returning Berks supported Tidey well leaving Reed a gettable target of 113 to win the cup for the first in the clubs history. Reed got off to a reasonable start. Although always slightly behind the run rate they were in with a shout at 22-0 after 5 overs. However, Heslam went in the next over and some excellent bowling and one extremely debatable umpiring decision to get rid of Simon Jackson left Reed in deep trouble at 37-3 at the halfway stage. Despite the best efforts of Peter Tidey promoted up the order to hit out and Ray Kingshott who struck a big six in his 22 Reed remained out of touch and fell 30 runs short bowled out in the last over of the game.

Reed kicked off their mid-week Keatley Cup campaign on Wednesday as they were drawn in the first round against Melbourn at home. Continuing their fine form, Reed won by 7 wickets thanks to some tight bowling and aggressive batting, typically similar to their league and National Village Cup performances. Despite losing the toss, Reed managed to peg back the Melbourn XI to 84 for 9 off their 15 eight ball overs. Richard Johnson (3-0-15-1) made an early breakthrough, but it was Chris Jackson (3-0-11-4) and Richard Robertson (3-0-17-3) who did the damage as they tore through the order, with Jackson capturing dangerman R.Cooper (27) LBW to begin the succession of wickets. Reed's strong reply ensured that the match was ended in 11.2 overs thanks to some intelligent batting by Tom Fulk (29) and Chris Jackson (35*) who saw off the pick of the Melbourn bowlers, Peter Flack, who bowled 2 maidens in his 3 over spell despite being unsuccessful. Reed's second round will be against Aspenden Standon & Puckeridge in the course of the next 2 weeks

Reed romped to an emphatic Keatley Cup Final victory over Royston on the Heath on Tuesday evening to land the areas most prestigious knock out Cricket Trophy for the eigth time in the last 21 years. Veteran Reed skipper John Heslam who, in company with Peter Tidey has played in all eight Reed wins (the first in 1983!) won the toss and invited Royston to bat on a balmy summers evening in front of a good sized crowd. The match started in dramatic style with Tidey bowling both John Welch and Nigel Gadsby in his first over leaving Royston reeling at 4 for 2. In the next over Newman punished some loose bowling from Richard Johnson but “Jonno” had the last laugh bowling him off the final ball of the over for 16. The drama continued in Tidey’s next over when Royston skipper Steve Gwynne firmly struck a full toss to leg but this merely resulted in a brilliant low catch being grabbed by James Heslam inches from the ground at short square leg taking the score to 24 for 4. A short period of consolidation and calm followed as Paul Miller and Ed Johnson saw Royston to 62 for 4 but then the drama returned with the introduction of 19 year old Jim Allsopp into the Reed attack. Off Allsopp’s fifth ball Miller was brilliantly caught at long on by Ben Bowles for 30 and the following ball Allsopp bowled Johnson for 8. A rare hat trick was completed when Allsopp spread-eagled Jim Perkins stumps with the very next delivery to leave Royston in total disarray at 62 for 7. Allsopp’s second over produced almost as much excitement as the first as he took [...]