Reed moved into the Herts and Beds area final of the National Village Cup after defeating Wheathampstead on Saturday.

Next up they face Langleybury to be able to declare themselves the best in the county in the competition. The overall final of the Village Cup will be played at Lord’s.

After the defeat against Wheathampstead last year, Reed were determined not to fall to the same fate and stormed to a six-wicket victory.

Captain James Heslam won the toss and chose to field on a slightly green deck after the large quantity of rain which saw the previous day’s game cancelled. This soon proved to be a great decision as the economical Jack Tidey (2-22) and once again impressive Tobey Fynn (4-36) made early inroads into the Wheathampstead top order.

Fynn took the first of the Reed wickets trapping Peter Griffiths plumb lbw for just two and Hashmi caught behind by Sean Tidey for eight.

Jack Tidey then got his first wicket, cleaning up McEwen for one, leaving the visitors struggling at 11-3.

Things didn’t improve for Wheathampstead as they lost more quick wickets with Fynn bowling Ben Griffiths and Potter for 11 and four respectively, leaving them 25-5.

Jack Tidey then bowled Tim Kiek for just eight leaving the visitors massively struggling on 31-6.

Wheathamsptead then offered some resistance through Walayat who played aggressively on his way to 42. He was supported by Steve Booth (8) who managed to frustrate and keep the Reed attack at bay.

Booth eventually was cleaned bowled by the ever impressive Greaves (2-22).

Walayat continued to be aggressive and was supported by Dabare (12). But Walayat was eventually caught by keeper Sean Tidey after he top edged the ball over the keeper’s head off of the bowling of Cooper (2-43). This left Wheathampstead in major trouble on 99-8.

This soon became 100-9 as Dabare was caught off the bowling of Greaves, hitting the ball aerially to cover which was comprehensively caught by Will Heslam.

The last pairing of Nick Martin and Dave Tree (6no) frustrated the Reed bowlers as they put on 31 for the last wicket. Cooper finally had Martin caught on the boundary by Stuart Smith for 24.

This left Reed a target 132 to win and progress to the regional final of the Davidstow National Village Cup.

Reed Openers Will Heslam and Sean Tidey set about chasing down the target aggressively.

Sean Tidey raced to 50 in the eighth over and proceeded to show his class by putting the bad ball away with a couple of huge sixes.

Will Heslam then fell for 15, leaving the score on 93-1. Greaves was dismissed in similar fashion for one.

Tidey was eventually caught on the boundary for a match-winning 79 leaving Smith (3no) and Jackson (18) to steady the ship.

However Jackson then fell to an lbw decision with Reed on 123-4, but Ward (6no) came in and comfortably finished the job with 15 overs to spare.