Cooks firsts suffer opening day defeat

For the third year running the Cooks made mistakes on the opening day of the season which in the past has cost them dear.

After losing the toss Cogenhoe got off to a decent start with openers Gareth Goddard (26) and Dan McLaughlin (27) putting on 50 in 10 overs thanks in the main to some wayward Haddon bowling. A change in that bowling line up saw the run rate drop and wickets start to fall as Patel 10-2-32-2 and Manderfield 8-2-21-3 reduced the Cooks to 94-6. Wayne Gardner 17 and Paul Browning with a positive 43 led a Cooks fight back and leaving them handily placed on 170-7 in the 37 over. However the Cooks could not cope with the wiley spin king Jon Gibson and some rash shots saw them all out for 172 and in the doing so committing the cardinal limited over sin of not using up your overs , something that would come back to haunt them.

East Haddon’s reply got off to a bad start with Alex Harvey-Jones clean bowling Steve Kilsby with his first ball of the season. The game then ebbed and flowed as the balance of power changed. Joe Oliver 22 and Nick Whorton 41 contributed well but the Cogenhoe opening pair of Alex 13-2-31-3 and Jason Kruger 13-4-30-0 kept the run rate down. The Cooks suffered a blow when Gareth Tompkins injured himself whilst fielding leaving them a bowler short. But Gareth Goddard stepped into the fray and promptly took a wicket in each of his first three overs.East Haddon’s nerves were beginning to show as they reached 110-7 in the 36 over. With Dane Manderfield joined at the crease by Matt Warren all seemed well until confusion led to a run out with Dane departing for 20. Warren then took up the mantle with young Jack Keeping and saw the visitors home in the 48th over for a 2 wicket win.For Cogenhoe the cost of not using their overs up was at least a winning draw, after 45 overs East Haddon were on 146-8. From Haddon’s point of view Cogenhoe’s score should have been much less as they gave away 43  extras which included 25 wides and 7 no balls. All in all an exciting match to watch and credit to East Haddon for their excellent batting display.