John Heslam writes:- As we move into August another Cricket season is rapidly moving towards its close, and if we want to be frank it hasn’t been a great season at Reed! Most of our League teams currently seem to be achieving “mid-table mediocrity”, bar our hard pressed, and hard done by, 3rd XI for which that would, at this stage, be an achievement! Our midweek Cricket has been abandoned and dispensed with and now does not exist – withdrawal from a newly established midweek League without playing a single match (!), and letting down a touring side by failing to honour a booked and agreed fixture. Pretty shameful stuff! Sunday 1st XI Cricket focuses on the National Village Cup where we threw away an excellent chance of making another Lord's Final with a below par display at the last 16 stage. Add this to barely tolerated appearances (or non-appearances!) in the Herts 20/20 competition. Sunday 2nd XI Cricket is one of the few thriving and well-supported areas of our Club's current operations. This current weekend has been a nightmare for selection and availability – unfortunately not for the first time this season – and when one sees 3rd XI players volunteering to act as “fodder” to make up a Herts Championship 1st XI, and pro-rata selection quandaries littering all the other teams, then it is indeed a miracle (well done to Lloyd Bowman – AGAIN!) that we managed to actually put out a 4th XI on Saturday. Saturday's weak teams, subsequent below performances, and poor results beyond the 1st XI, might have put paid to our 2nd XI’s chances of another promotion, and might have sealed the further relegation of our 3rd XI? Time [...]