Reed were surprised to be offered the first chance to bowl on the track and Graham Wilson and Lee Johnson found the right areas straight away. They managed to tie the Hemel batsman down, giving them no bad balls and with the hope the wicket would do something for them. With Hemel on 23, Wilson got the first wicket after a great catch by Chris Jackson and then the flood gates opened with Johnson ripping through Hemel leaving them at 54-7. Johnson got his first 5 wicket haul of the season and the man of the match award taking 5-43 off 13 overs. Wilson bowled throughout the innings taking 3-54 off 19 and Jack Tidey cleared up the tail taking 2-17 off his 5 overs. Reed caught some great catches from Stuey Smith, Liam McKechnie and 2 from Jackson in bowling Hemel out for 125 in 37 overs. With Reed missing 2 regular first team batsman and having a testing 15 overs to bat before tea it was going to be a tough session. However Hemel did not have the bowlers that Reed had and interestingly opened with a spinner, on a wicket that was doing something for the seamers. Reed lost young Tom Greaves with the score on 14 however with Greaves out, Aussie McKechnie came in and gave them no grace. McKechnie and captain James Heslam took the game to Hemel and proved that it was good bowling and not the wicket that bowled out Hemel. Reed reached 61-1 at tea, which without doubt was the best and most delightful away tea that we had this season (so thank you for that Hemel). Luckily with the game nearly won all the Reed players [...]

Match report to follow

Reed were away at Harpenden IIs on Saturday, in what turned in to an enthralling game. With Harpenden still having their coaches comments ringing in their ears about not being good enough to get promoted, Reed knew Harpenden would come at them hard from the start. Batting first, James Heslam and Liam McKechnie played superbly against the best opening attack they had seen all season. Reed players were hoping the slow start would lay a solid start to their innings. Despite having only 28 off 13 overs, Heslam and McKechnie slowly built the pace up throughout the innings. Both reaching 50 shortly after each other and matching each other throughout the innings. With the field now spread Heslam and McKechnie, continued to stroke the ball in to gaps and dispensing the bad balls for 4. Heslam was the first to go for 90, after playing the captains part in the opening partnership of 181 in less than 40 overs. Heslam was out playing an expansive shot to take the game away from the home side. McKechnie reached his first league hundred for Reed, before getting out shortly after for 107, hitting 15 4s and facing 183, in a superfluous innings. Chris Jackson managed to keep the scoreboard ticking scoring 20, however all the other Reed batsman did not have time to get in as Reed declared on 244-7 Reed without Graham Wilson, 1 part of their inform bowling attack knew that had to bowl well from the start and get the best of the luck possible. Kallum Ward (1-24) making his first appearance for the first team of the season got the interesting looking overseas player our with his second ball, with the umpire having [...]

Reeds good run of performances came to a holt away at high flying Flitwick on Saturday. Reed got off to a rare poor start, seeing themselves struggling at 24 for 4. Phil Frenay and Will Dobson then set about adding some stability to the innings. Dobson with some first class shots and Frenay showing resilience in getting Reed going before Frenay went first for 25 and Dobson shortly after for 27. A few boundaries from Jack Tidey (19) and some stubbornness from Simon Jackson and pinch hitting from four hitting Graham Wilson saw Reed limp to 118. Jason Twist was the pick of the Flitwick bowlers taking 4-28. After a lovely tea which even involved sledging from new Flitwick cheerleader Big Phil, Reed went out hoping to get an early breakthrough to make the game interesting. However captain Ferguson and Underwood had other ideas. Ferguson was made to jump around by the Reed bowlers however put away the bad ball away very well indeed. Whilst Underwood scratched around for dear life. Drop catches again were Reeds downfall and if they had managed to take one of the tough chances, it may have exposed the rest of the Flitwick line up. Ferguson raced to 70 out of their first 92 before Underwood was beaten by the pace of Lee Johnson with Jackson taking a diving leg side catch. Johnson got wicket number 2 and then clean bowled Ferguson shortly after but with the wickets coming too late, Flitwick went through their target in less than 21overs. Disappointed Reed captain James Heslam, “felt that the game was a slight blip in our recent very good batting performances. They bowled well, whilst we could have been slightly luckier [...]

Reed got back to winning ways with a very convincing win over previously 4th place Dunstable, with a great all round performance on Saturday. James Heslam and Tom Greaves, took the game early to Dunstable with them hitting the bad ball for 4 and but defending the balls with varied bounce.  Greaves hit his first 50 of the season off only 39 balls and in his innings of 55 he hit 11 4s before he was first to go.This bought Reed Vice Captain Chris Jackson in with captain Heslam. Both used their maturity and experience to guide the Dunstable attack to all areas of the very large outfield. Heslam anchored the inning in his 80.    With Reed wanting to get as many runs as possible with the outfield being so quick, meant that wickets were falling from attacking shots rather than good balls. Jackson went for 28 as did Liam McKecknie after a quick fire innings. Tom Fulk (31 not out) and Phil Frenay (10 not out) with a strike rate of 250% saw Reed to an impressive 245-4 in 52 overs.   In reply Dunstable never got going after only have 1 off the first 4 overs, with young Jack Tidey (1-24) and Graham Wilson (3-52) bowling well. Wilson got the first wicket with the Dunstable openers eyes lighting up when he thought he had a run scoring shot before his stumps were spread over Bedfordshire.  This bought in Oxford University cricketer Jon Lodwick, who obviously could bat and with Reed knowing it would be hard to get him out, decided it was best to leave him in as he was more interested in getting a not out than winning the game for [...]

A rearguard action by skipper Bernie Morss and Lee Johnson saved Reed's First XI from defeat at Broxbourne on Saturday. Electing to bat first on a cool day with rain constantly in the air, Broxbourne lost a wicket to the first ball of the innings as Lee Johnson rearranged, Chris Dawson's stumps. The Home side tentatively set about building a competitive total, despite some good bowling from Reed's Opening attack of Lee Johnson 8-1-36-1 and last week's hero Graham Wilson 13-3-31-0. Skipper Bernie Morss brought himself into the attack and immediately removed Glassberg for 35.The lack of pace on the ball unnerved the Broxbourne batting line up with Morss taking a further three wickets leaving him with 18-3-78-4. Only Bailey with a pugnacious 83 holding Broxbourne together. However, with a little over half an hour to tea, Ferguson and Hodgson added 75 vital runs in just 53 balls to take Broxbourne to 228 for 6 in their allocated overs.Reed were soon in trouble as Liam McKechnie and Chris Jackson were dismissed in successive balls to leave the visitors at 4-2. James Heslam and Tom Greaves set about rebuilding the innings with patence and flair until a contentious lbw decision saw Heslam depart for 25. Greaves tried to take the initiative but soon fell for a gutsy 28, to leave the visitors precariously placed. The home side pressed there advantage and at 82-8 Reed looked as if they had nothing left to give. However, they didn't bank on the two left handers of Lee Johnson and Bernie Morss dropping anchor and saving the game with an unbeaten 31 partnership to save the game, Reed ended on 113-8 and picked up six bonus points in a yo-yo [...]