Reed hosted Welwyn Garden City II’s at the Green on Saturday. WGC won the toss and inserted the hosts in conditions that would appear to offer assistance to the bowlers. Phil Frenay joined James Heslam at the top of the innings and the pair made a solid start to proceedings, taking advantage of some ordinary bowling. Any momentum gained by the hosts was thwarted in the 7th over with a 40 minute break as a knee injury to one of WGC’s fielders required the assistance of paramedics. Resuming play after this break, Reed continued forward until there was a breakdown in communication between the pair resulting in Heslam (18) being narrowly run out. This brought Chris Jackson to the crease, who started with a flurry of boundaries. After this initial good start from Reed, WGC’s bowlers began to get into their rhythm, and runs became more difficult to come by, particularly with the introduction of spin to the attack. Some excellent running between the wickets however kept the scoreboard ticking over and frustrated the bowlers. Jackson was first to register his half century with some powerful, lofted straight shots. Frenay soon followed him to 50 with a heave into leg side for 4. As both batsmen got their eye in the run rate began to increase, capitalising on the excellent start made by the pair. Frenay, keen to use his feet to the spinners was eventually undone as he missed one down the leg side and was stumped for 79, ending an excellent 160 run partnership with Jackson. This brought Tom Fulk to the crease who played some nice shots before he unselfishly misjudged a drive to mid on and was caught for 15 as [...]

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 [...]

Reed entertained possible promotion rivals Knebworth Park II’s on a glorious day up at the Green, with both teams looking to assert themselves at the top of the table. Skipper Bernie Morss won the toss and elected to bat on what appeared to be a belter of a wicket. Reed’s openers made a solid start to proceedings, negotiating the new ball effectively and punishing some wayward bowling. With the score on 43, Fergus Martin appeared unlucky to be adjudged LBW for 14, when he got an inside edge on to his pad. The wicket brought Chris Jackson to the crease, he, combined with James Heslam set about dominating Kneboworth’s attack, both playing shots all around the ground. Heslam looked in ominous form as he eased towards his third century of the season, and in doing so placed his team in a strong position to post a challenging total. Having put on 122 for the second wicket Chris Jackson was bowled for 46. Tom Fulk was next in and was a victim of trying to force the pace towards the end of the innings, falling for 8. With the score at 193-3 Phil Frenay joined Heslam in the middle. At first Frenay was content to work the single, maintaining Reed’s momentum and allowing the in-form Heslam to hit the boundaries. However by the 51st over at 264-3 when Morss called an end to the innings, Frenay had scored a brisk 29 off 25 balls and Heslam finished with a magnificent 149 not out. Reed started brightly with the new ball, although initially without luck, as Lee Johnson (13-1-66-1) bowled Knebworth Park’s opener only for it to be called a no-ball. Johnson worked up a fair head [...]

Reed 1st XI travelled to Harpenden II’s last Saturday on a hot and humid summer’s day. Reed won the toss and elected to bat on what appeared to be a hard and true pitch. Reed had revised their batting order slightly for this game, with Richard Johnson accompanying the in form James Heslam at the top of the order. Unfortunately this had little affect as R Johnson was bowled for 2. This brought Chris Jackson to the crease, hoping to prolong his recent run of good form. However he did not last long as he was run out comfortably having slipped over, also for 2. Tom Greaves was next in and he and Heslam set about stabilising the innings. Greaves, having survived a blow to the helmet from his first delivery, was the aggressor. He played a number of thumping drives down the ground and classy flicks over square leg. He was ably supported by Heslam who took the more cautious approach. Having put on 93 for the 3rd wicket and both registered there half centuries, Reed suffered a double with both Greaves and Heslam going in quick succession. Greaves was caught at mid-wicket, pulling, for 56 and Heslam was caught behind for 51. This sparked a spectacular batting collapse which resulted in the last 8 wickets falling for just 40 runs. First to go was Phil Frenay who misjudged an inswinging full toss and was given out LBW for 0. Ed Garrott was soon to follow, caught behind for 3. Si Jackson offered some resistance facing 35 balls for his 9 before being run out, with same fate happening to Lee Johnson, out for 1. Kallum Ward on his 1st team debut made a [...]

Reed travelled to Flitwick on Saturday in need of a victory to maintain their promotion push. On what was a glorious day for cricket, Bernie Morss won the toss and elected to bat despite the pitch looking lush after a week of showers. Reed lost opener Phil Frenay early on as he was yorked for 3. This brought the in-form Chris Jackson to the crease and he and James Heslam looked to rebuild the innings. C. Jackson was soon into his stride and scored at a comfortable rate, taking advantage of some over pitched bowling. Heslam, although not scoring as fluently as Jackson, was looking in ominous form. The pair looked set for big scores, but just as C. Jackson made it to his half century, an error of judgement led to him being caught at point for a well made 53, leaving Reed 101-2. Tom Greaves was next in, however his stay was short as he was adjudged caught behind for 0. Marcus Martin looked comfortable at the crease until he was bowled for 4 which brought in Richard Johnson. Johnson (15) played some delightful drives and it looked as though he and Heslam could form a meaningful partnership. Unfortunately for the team however, Heslam perished, run out for 63, and with him went Reed’s hopes of making a total much over 200. Next out was R. Johnson, caught for 15. Some lusty blows from Lee Johnson (16) and quick running between the wickets from Si Jackson edged the total closer to 200, however after L. Johnson was run out, both Bernie Morss and Graham Wilson could not add much to the tally, both making 1 and leaving Andy Young 0 not out. Despite [...]

East Haddon won the toss and elected to bowl  On a sunny and warm day in Northamtonshire Fergus Martin and Phil Frenay opened the batting for Reed on East Haddon's artificial surface, putting on an impressive 112 for the first wicket, against some  inaccurate deliveries from the open bowlers of the home side.  Phil was first to be dismissed for 36, hitting a delivery from young leg spinner Povey to the fielder at deep mid wicket, who took a comfortable catch.  Chris Jackson was next in and move along nicely to 20 before being caught off the off spin of Berger, attempting to increase the scoring rate.  This led to the introduction of Tom Greaves who played some characteristic aggressive shots including a big six of a full toss from Berger.  During this feast of extras, expansive shot making and wickets falling young opener Fergus Martin was plying his trade, cleverly rotating the strike and playing some classy shots, including an extra cover drive off East Haddon's best bowler Southam.  Martin's innings was completed in the 40th over after being bowled by Keeping for 78,  bring Karl Ward to the crease to face the final few over of the innings.  Reed's inning was completed on 216 with Tom Greave's not out on an impressive 31. The Johnson’s, Lee and Richard opened the bowling for Reed and despite the artificial surface slow pace suiting neither bowler an early break through was soon made, with Richard Johnson clever slower ball being pulled to Young at mid wicket  who completed a sharp catch.  The next phrase of play proved to be East Haddon best, when the home sides South African captain Berger came to the crease.  Berger and the opener Brown played well taking the home side to 73 before Richard Johnson took his second wicket, removing Brown [...]