Reed 1st XI hosted Langleybury 1st XI at home on Saturday. Langleybury won the toss and opted to bat first. Reed's opening bowler Ed Wharton (10-4-24-2) stormed in and had opener Corran caught behind by Sean Tidey in the third over, leaving Langleybury 10 for 1. A solid stand of 41 then developed between R.Soulsby (51) and N.Amin (19) before Wharton bowled Amin for 19. Soulsby continued with S.Knox (19) taking the score to 95 for 3 after 28 overs. Tom Greaves (15-4-37-3) brought himself into the attack and soon had Knox LBW followed by W.Oxley (5). Meanwhile Alex Mutucumarana (12.4-51-51-5) was brought into the attack bowling his leg spin and quickly got rid of A.Gunning (10). Greaves and Mutucumarana then ran through the rest of the Langleybury batting order leaving them 173 all out in 49.4 overs. Reed were left with 65 overs to chase down the Langleybury total which should have been very gettable with no demons apparent in the pitch. However Langleybury bowled very tightly and Reed struggled to find the boundary and were 15 of 0 after 7 overs. William Heslam (5) soon fell to T.Brall and Tom Greaves followed soon after. James Heslam (38) then put on a stand of 30 with Chris Jackson (19) and Reed looked in control, but Jackson then got out with the score on 54 followed by S. Tidey and Mutucumarana without troubling the scorer and Reed were in trouble at 54 for 5. Ed Wharton kept Reed's hopes alive with a cultured 25, but when he went the tail folded and Reed were bowled out for 97 with 35 overs remaining. The main damage was done by R.Oxley (8.5-1-33-4) and M.Corran (8-3-27-4) who both [...]

Reed bowled out Langleybury for a paltry 98 on a lively wicket, despite the heavy rain during the week. On only the second ball Richard Wharton stumped the Langleybury opener standing well back to his brother, Ed! This was a prelude to a collapse as the hosts slumped to 28-5 with Wharton taking two more, Mitchell Cooper and Toby Fynn claiming the other two. Only Rhys Williams with 29 not out staved off a rout, but the returning Wharton (10-4-22-4) and Fynn (8-1-30-4) polished off the tail. A slow, but steady response from Reed's openers laid the platform for a comfortable chase and an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 71 by Richard Wharton (57 not out) and Rob Lankester (23 not out) sealed the victory in 22 overs. Khalid Manzoor's 1-17 from 8 overs was all that held up Reed's batsmen, who accelerated well towards the end of the innings. It was Reed's fourth win in five of the 50 over encounters that began the league season. Next weekend they face Hoddesdon in the Herts League on Saturday then, on Sunday, Long Marston in the Regional Final of the National Village Cup. Report submitted by Peter Wholley.