Reed s Sunday team avoided the sinking feeling they suffered last year as they defeated Titanic by eight wickets in the North Herts League. Titanic won the toss and unsurprisingly opted to bat on Reed s superb wicket. However they were soon regretting t

Reed's Sunday team avoided the sinking feeling they suffered last year as they defeated Titanic by eight wickets in the North Herts League.

Titanic won the toss and unsurprisingly opted to bat on Reed's superb wicket.

However they were soon regretting that decision as Richard Johnson tore into their top order with an impressive and hostile spell of fast bowling taking three wickets in the process.

Johnson's opening bowling partner Rupert Martin was also impressive, bowling a quick and accurate spell taking the wicket of Smith, and in combination with Johnson had Titanic flailing at 32-4.

It took an aggressive partnership from Coousey (24) and Maskell (23) to allow Titanic to recover to 86-4.

Marcus Martin then held on to a tough chance, albeit after spending a few seconds juggling the ball, off of the bowling of Dan Champion to remove Maskell.

Champion followed this up by removing Coousey's off stump in the same over to swing the game back in Reeds favour.

Clive Collins then took a brace of wickets in another good tight spell.

Captain Jason Archer toiled however, and despite some not so subtle changes of pace, remained as wicketless as Titanic finished on 119-8 from their allotted overs.

Reed sent out promising young batsmen Fergus Martin and Matt Bowles in their quest to chase down the runs, and with both players playing some exquisite attacking strokes Reed raced onto 17.

Martin was then adjudged to have been LBW in what looked a close decision.

This brought his older brother Marcus to the crease, and taking encouragement from Bowles' stroke-play, Martin ditched his usual defensive style and began to take the attack to Titanic.

The pair put on 69 runs before Martin was harshly given out LBW despite a big stride, for 40.

In form Karl Ward then joined Bowles at the crease, and despite a nervy start began to find his rhythm and helped edge Reed ever closer to victory.

With Ward in the mood to round the game off quickly, it was left to Bowles to play his way sensibly to good 50 (not out), before Ward (21 not out) finished the game off with a trade mark boundary giving Reed an impressive wicket victory in their push for promotion.

Reed II achieved back-to-back victories for the first time this season with a solid victory over Tewin on Saturday.

Captain Jason Archer again lost the toss, and Reed were forced to field first in the hot sun.

This proved to be a blessing in disguise for Reed as they kept the hosts scoring to a bare minimum in the early stages, after some exceptional bowling from Ian Roberts and Karl Ward.

Despite the slow scoring of the home side, it took Reed until the 17th over before they took a wicket, when Richard Robertson clean bowled Holroyd.

Captain Archer then joined the party by removing Tewin's other opening Batsman Taylor before any more runs were scored. This left Tewin struggling on 23-2 after 18 overs.

Archer and Robertson continued to bowl tightly but a 24 over 80 run partnership between the E Sage (11) and C Sage (52) allowed Tewin to stabilise.

Robertson then picked up his second wicket, bowling a weary C Sage. This signalled Tewin's downfall as Reed's experienced and cunning seem attack began to take control with Archer and Roberts next to take wickets.

Richard Robertson then produced a magnificent over, taking a superb hat-trick to leave Tewin toiling on 105-7.

Robertson continued to take wickets giving him a well deserved five wicket haul, with Archer notching three wickets in his marathon 17 overs.

At 124-9 Reed looked to have put Tewin in trouble, but some explosive batting from the large frame of Wilson who scored 55 runs, including some huge sixes, allowed Tewin to jump to a decent looking 169-9 off of their 53 overs.

On a bowler-friendly track, Reed got off to a stuttering start losing a couple of quick wickets, and when Tewin got the wickets of Matt Bowles for 17 and Ed Garrott for 11, Reed looked in some trouble at 40-4.

However this only brought Ian Fulk and the in-form Richard Barlow to the crease. Barlow batted brilliantly for 30 and along with Fulk took the pressure off Reed, before Barlow fell to the wily Sheppard.

Fulk continued undeterred to a faultless and immaculate 63 not out, and was well supported by Reed's in form all rounder Karl Ward who hooked drove and pulled his way to an impressive 41 not out to take Reed home.

Cokenach strengthened their Cambridgeshire League title chances with a comfortable 76 run at third placed Thurlow.

Cokenach skipper Peter Clarke won the toss for the first time this season and decided to put home side in to bat.

Richard Field (53) and James Keel (17) gave them a solid start putting on 56 for the first wicket, before James was caught out in the deep.

However, Clarke (56) joined Field and put on a partnership of 70 before the latter was caught behind at 126-2.

With some hard work still to be done to set a decent total, Cokenach lost a couple of further wickets.

But late cameos from Rob Stone (16), Nigel Sirett and Carl Thompson pushed the total up to a respectable 192-8 off their 40 overs.

With the heat still very strong, Thurlow began their innings, a fantastic opening spell from James Keel destroyed Thurlow's top order leaving them precariously at 30-4.

With two wickets apiece from Peter Clarke, Field and John Ford, Thurlow were bowled out for 116. James Keel finished with outstanding figures of 10 overs, 4-41.

n Clubs playing in the Cambridgeshire League have been given the opportunity to start their games early on Saturday in order to watch England's World Cup quarter-final against Portugal.

In the interests of getting the fixtures played, the CCA has stated that if both teams are agreeable, matches can begin up to one hour earlier than the regular start time for this Saturday only, said competitions secretary Martin Livermore.

He added: "Matches can be stopped to watch the football match and then restarted afterwards. The tea interval must be taken during the football match if this option is taken.

"Teams should keep in mind the fact that providing both sides agree prior to the start of the game, then reduced over matches are possible.

"The senior league teams must play a minimum of 32 overs per side, and junior league teams must play a minimum of 28 overs per side.

"Obviously they should take into account that there would be less chance of as many bonus points for the losing side."

n Cricket reports should be submitted to The Crow by 9am on a Tuesday. They can be emailed to sport@royston-crow.co.uk or faxed to 01763 242231.