Reed convincingly beat fellow promotion chasers Radlett on Saturday taking them to 3rd in the Herts Division 2 . On wicket and outfield which had been subject to the recent rain, Radlett won the toss and put Reed into bat looking to take advantage of the conditions. The raw pace of Radlett’s South African opening bowler J Mafa and the guile of Stuart Browne was watchfully played by Reed’s opening pair of Heslam and Dobson, before the South African took both their wickets with the score at 62. Chris Jackson had settled in well at this point, and carefully started building an innings with the assistance of the Reed’s middle order. Jackson worked the ball well around the ground in a fine innings of 107. Attempting to take the inning to excess of 200, both Jackson and Reed’s late order fell looking to play their shots. Reed’s 206 for 9 was a challenging total for the visitors, but with the wicket and outfield drying out the conditions were definitely now more in favour of the visitors. In reply Reed’s opening pair of Lee Johnson and Graham Wilson bowled imperiously, offering the Radlett openers very little rest bite, which soon saw them slowly getting behind the run rate. Johnson took the middle stump of opener Lewis in the 6th over, before a 2nd wicket partnership of 60 was built by Patternott and Walker. Falling behind in the run rate, Walker started to open his arms, before he fell to Morss (1-22), caught in the deep by Jackson. Andy Young (2-19) picked up 2 wickets in a tight spell of bowling, which saw Radlett’s attempt to chase Reed’s total falter. With the score on 101 for 5, [...]

Reed travelled to Barnet to play Old Finchleians on a beautiful summers day. Old Finchleians won the toss and asked the visitors to bat. Reed got off to the worst possible start when in-form James Heslam was adjudged LBW first ball of the game. Things did not get much better for Reed when Fergus Martin was caught behind for a single. Chris Jackson and Tom Fulk had the task of rebuilding the innings and sensibly they took a very cautious approach early on, with the opening bowlers hitting a consistent line and length. The pair gradually got to grips with the task in hand, playing some classical cover drives. The opening bowlers began to tire in the afternoon sunshine and were perhaps kept on for a few too many overs as Jackson and Fulk looked increasingly comfortable. The introduction of spin from both ends slowed the run rate notably. The 2 spinners complemented each other perfectly, with a wrist spinner bowling with good pace and a “googly” in his armoury, and an off spinner bowling very slowly and with lots of flight. The lack of pace on the ball and some good field placings made scoring runs difficult. Eventually with the score on 94, Fulk was caught behind for an excellent 47. This brought Phil Frenay to the crease who, trying to push the run rate along, miscued a drive to point and was caught for 1. Tom Greaves was next in, his first batting opportunity for the I’s this season. The pair worked the spinners well, with Jackson continuing to caress some imperious drives through the covers and Greaves playing some delicate touch shots through the leg side. Greaves was eventually out in similar [...]

Reed travelled to Barnet to play Old Finchleians on a beautiful summers day. Old Finchleians won the toss and asked the visitors to bat. Reed got off to the worst possible start when in-form James Heslam was adjudged LBW first ball of the game. Things did not get much better for Reed when Fergus Martin was caught behind for a single. Chris Jackson and Tom Fulk had the task of rebuilding the innings and sensibly they took a very cautious approach early on, with the opening bowlers hitting a consistent line and length. The pair gradually got to grips with the task in hand, playing some classical cover drives. The opening bowlers began to tire in the afternoon sunshine and were perhaps kept on for a few too many overs as Jackson and Fulk looked increasingly comfortable. The introduction of spin from both ends slowed the run rate notably. The 2 spinners complemented each other perfectly, with a wrist spinner bowling with good pace and a “googly” in his armoury, and an off spinner bowling very slowly and with lots of flight. The lack of pace on the ball and some good field placings made scoring runs difficult. Eventually with the score on 94, Fulk was caught behind for an excellent 47. This brought Phil Frenay to the crease who, trying to push the run rate along, miscued a drive to point and was caught for 1. Tom Greaves was next in, his first batting opportunity for the I’s this season. The pair worked the spinners well, with Jackson continuing to caress some imperious drives through the covers and Greaves playing some delicate touch shots through the leg side. Greaves was eventually out in similar [...]

Reed 1st team travelled to an in-form Northwood last Saturday, looking to end a run of poor results and get their season back on track. According to the weather forecasters it was touch and go as to weather the game would be completed and thanks to a shockingly poor wicket there was never any danger of a drawn game. Obviously the Northwood skipper was unaware as to how poorly the track was going to play, as he won the toss and chose to bat. Reed made a perfect start to the game, thanks to a double strike from Lee Johnson (8-1-34-2) reducing the hosts to 1 for 2. Despite this excellent start and continued pressure applied by the accurate bowling of L. Johnson and fellow opener Graham Wilson (11-3-26-0) a third wicket partnership developed. With L. Johnson tiring after a spell of hostile bowling, Bernie Morss (13-6-14-2) took over. He, in conjunction with Wilson beat the bat on numerous occasions with the ball gripping on the very dry wicket. The game really changed in favour of the visiting side when Wilson made way for Andy Young (9.1-4-25-6). With the score on 82 the third wicket was taken, breaking a partnership of 81 runs. The next 7 wickets proceeded to fall for just 21 runs, with Morss and Young appearing pretty much impossible to play on this difficult wicket. Reed knew that they had a hard, yet achievable target to reach. James Heslam and Si Jackson batted with much purpose opening the batting. S Jackson determined to keep the bowlers at bay whilst Heslam played the more aggressive role. It was Heslam (17) who was first to go with the total on 35 when he was [...]

On a slightly green but dry track Northwood Town won the toss and elected to bat in this Saturday SHCL Div 2 Reed Home fixture. Lee Johnson (2 for 48) opened the bowling with debutant Jack Tidey (2 for 26) with the young bowler Tidey soon causing problems, removing the dangerous looking Vann-ee for 8, bowled. Despite bowling up hill into a stiff wind Jack soon struck again removing the talented number three for Northwood Lee for 9, again bowled. During Jack’s impressive spell, Lee Johnson was again pilling on the pressure from his end, with some controlled but aggressive fast bowling. Due to restriction on young bowlers, Mr Tidey had to be replace with the inform Richard Johnson (1 for 14) who continue the opening bowlers good work, removing Costard (39) who had batted very well hitting some great shots straight. Again Lee supported Richard superbly, finally getting some justice for his fine spell, trapping Heaney LBW and bowling Lister in quick succession. Andy Young (2 for 6) was brought into the attack with Northwood score standing at 83 for 5, and was in truth a little too good for the lower middle order, removing Doling with a quick delivery that lifted off a length and setting up Bushnell with two that beat him on the outside of his bat, then bowling a full in swinger that hit middle and off stump. This brought captain Raj Hluwalia (26) to the crease and with Robbin quickly being dismissed by the tricky off spin of Dobson (3 for 11) left Northwood Town 8 for 87. Raj played a captains inning being support by the stubborn Robbins, accumarating 33 valuable runs on for the ninth wicket before [...]