Reed slumped to their first defeat of the season against St Margaretsbury on Saturday, failing to capitalise on their excellent start to the season. After a typically wet Friday evening, the toss was to be crucial and having chosen correctly the visitors made no hesitation in putting Reed into bat. The home side failed to get to grips with the conditions from the outset, and combined with some poor shot selection and good bowling Reed capitulated to just 75 all out. Will Dobson was the only Reed batsman to come away with any respectability but ran out of partners in a fine knock of 30.In response, the total was insufficient for Reed's bowlers to get into any sort of rhythm, and despite picking up three wickets the visitors eased to victory in the 20th over to take all 30 points.

Reed continued their promotion push on Saturday with a 4 wicket win over Shenley Village. Rain meant a delayed start but Reed came out of the blocks quickly. Opening bowlers Lee Johnson and Jack Tidey (10-4-24-2) yet again took early wickets leaving Shenley struggling at 15-3. A partnership started to build before Tom Greaves (14-2-45-1) had Stanley caught for 16. After good spells from Tom Walsingham and Mitchell Cooper, Lee Johnson returned from the other end to rip through the middle and lower order of Shenley Village. He accounted for dangermen R.Hammill (56) and M.Evans (31). Johnson then took 4 more wickets in a fine display of patient bowling. The impressive Johnson ended with figures of (16-2-44-7). This left Reed needing 154 to win in 44 overs.With the weather still looming Reed openers James and Will Heslam knew that they had to build a solid platform. They did just this and took advantage of some very average bowlers who were being hit for 5 and 7 an over respectively. Hammill, who starred with the bat for Shenley broke the partnership with the score on 63 when he had Will Heslam caught for 28. Skipper James Heslam kicked on but lost Greaves (7) leaving Reed 89-2. Heslam passed 50 and was finding the boundary regularly before being bowled by the impressive Nikhil Borkatria who took 4- 43. Heslam made 63 including 13 fours. Sean Tidey (20) and Marcus Martin (16) both contributed to the Reed reply and guided Reed to within 12 of victory. Mitchell Cooper (12 not out) and Phil Frenay (3 not out) saw Reed home in 38.5 overs . Reed now lay 2nd in the table and are travelling to Abbotts Langley next [...]

Reed got back to winning ways with a convincing 6 win over Preston on Saturday. Having won the toss Reed skipper James Heslam made no hesitation in having a bowl, on a wicket that looked like it would offer some assistance to the bowlers. This proved to be right, when in the 4th over Reed had Preston on the rocks, 3 wickets down for just 6 runs. Lee Johnson (3-37) again proving his worth at the head of the Reed attack picking up all three wickets. A change in the bowling at the other end introduced young Mitchell Cooper to the attack. The eighteen year old all rounder bowled with good pace but it was his consistent length which saw him continuously trouble the Preston batsman. Cooper picked up wickets throughout and saw him achieve his best league figures, finishing with 6-22 off 11 overs to record an fine spell of bowling. Preston, despite a late rearguard presence were bowled out for 93.After a typically fine Preston tea, Reed’s response didn’t quite go to plan, losing Will Heslam and Tom Greaves early on. James Heslam and Chris Jackson then put the game beyond Preston, seeing Reed into a safe position with a valuable third wicket partnership when the home side were starting to exert the pressure. When Heslam went for 36 with the score on 63, Jackson continued the previous good work, and along with Stuart Smith the pair comfortably put the game beyond the home side. With Smith falling late on, it was up to Jackson (26*) to score the winning runs to take all 30 points.

Given the poor weather Reed travelled in hope rather than expectation to far flung Northwood on Saturday. After the rain ceased the pitch was deemed fit for play and a reduced overs match 44 v 38 Overs was decided. Skipper James Heslam won the toss and given the weather forecast, and the possibility of stealing a march on some other promotion contenders who had already seen their matches rained off, he decided to field first. Reed got off to a good start with Northwood slipping to 20-2 after 7 overs, and then 41-3, but opener Rodgers proved difficult to dislodge and the home team scoring rate averaged almost 4 runs an over and reached 95-4 after 25 overs with Porharkar dismissed at that stage for 23. All the Reed bowlers bowled reasonably tidily without dominating at any stage and Rodgers passed his 50 and pressed on with building a sizeable personal total. Tom Greaves 12 Overs 3 - 48 was Reeds most successful bowler but Rodgers scored 92 before being run out late in the innings. A late flurry saw Northwood total 183-8 a disappointingly high score to concede in the conditions and in only 44 Overs, with a bonus of 7 extra balls conceded to the opposition in Reed wides and no balls.With only 3 bowling points and only single batting points on the table Reed knew that to secure any meaningful points total from the match they had to record a win. A good start saw the Heslam brothers put on 27 in 4 overs but then Will fell caught for 6 and Tom Greaves followed shortly after for a duck. At 36 for 2 after 8 overs a big partnership was needed [...]

Reed failed to maintain their good start to the season on Saturday with a 23 run defeat to Northchurch. Having won the toss, the visitors elected to bat and made good progress before an excellent piece of fielding from Karl Ward saw the end to Liveing, run out for 12 with the score on 33. Hobley and Boge were by far the pick of Northchurch’s batters and batted well together putting on 50 for the 2nd wicket before Hobley became the first of Tom Greaves’s 7 wickets. Boge continued to move the ball around the ground well and was the main lynchpin in Northchurch’s innings. Other batsmen came and went cheaply to rash shots or poor decision making and when Boge finally fell to Greaves with the score on 171-5 the visitors total was never far off. Greaves picked up the final wicket of Villa with the score on 188, leaving Reed wondering what they may have been chasing if the wicket of Boge had been picked up earlier. Greaves finished with excellent figures of 7-56In reply, faced with some consistent line and length bowling from the Northchurch openers James and Villa, Reed failed to get the start they wanted; losing brothers James and William Heslam with the score on 32. Chris Jackson and Tom Greaves moved the score onwards before Greaves and then Ward fell soon after, leaving Reed stuttering on 86-4. Will Dobson looked the partner to assist Jackson in Reed’s run chase however despite looking promising in a game of two innings, he fell to James for 18. Frenay departed unfortuitously soon after, leaving Reed 100-6 facing an uphill battle. Jackson continued to maintain a presence and was ably assisted by Sean [...]

Luton Town won the toss and invited Reed to bat but the pitch held few terrors for the batsman and at 28-0 in the 7th over Reed were going comfortably until Skipper James Heslam called a dangerous single and was run out for 27. Will Heslam and Chris Jackson took the total to 52 before Heslam Jr fell caught behind for 15 and Tom Greaves came to the crease. At 90 for 2 in the 23rd over Reed seemed destined for a large total but the Luton bowling tightened up with Mansoor and Parsooth proving difficult to get away and the Reed innings beginning to stagnate. Tom Greaves fell for 39 with the score at 128 in the 38th over and Chris Jackson followed soon after also for 39 with the score at 137 in the 42nd over. Then the rot really set in as Reed desperately sought to increase the tempo and wickets fell at regular intervals. Only Phil Frenay with 11 managed double figures as Reed lost their last 6 wickets for only 38 runs in 10 overs leaving them all out for only 175 in the 53rd over.A total of 175 is usually incredibly difficult to defend at Reed without bowling particularly well or benefitting from helpful bowling conditions and so it proved again. Jack Tidey dismissed opener page with the score at 32 and No 3 Haroon went for only 5 with the total on 51. Bashir and Ali took the score to 86 before opener Ali was caught behind by Sean Tidey off Tom Greaves for 54. However that was as good as it got for Reed as Bashir took over where Ali had left off and Luton cruised towards [...]