23rd May – Kettering Seconds (a)
The seconds travelled to Kettering and Ryan kept up his record for 2015 of losing the toss, with the opposition choosing to bowl on flat pitch with a generous covering of grass. The batsmen Russ and Dan were forced to defend but managed to negotiate the Kettering opening duo, with the introduction of the change bowler, the situation soon changed. Dan then Liam (for a duck) succumbed to the full length bowling, with both being bowled within the space of three balls. With specialist batsmen being a little thin on the ground the next two partnerships were crucial. The skipper joined Denton’s own and the runs soon flowed, with Ryan brutally despatching any loose delivery that came his way. Russ was content to defend and play the supporting role, allowing the pair to pass fifty, the partnership was then broken when Ryan lofted one ball too many and found the solitary fielder at long off. Mark Bird joined Russ and took over the more attacking role though Russ was now almost matching Marks run for run with the pair realising another fifty partnership overs now running out Mark was then bowled for 29. This brought in debutant Ben Garratt to join Russ, who was soon out unfortunately going for a quick single scoring a valuable 42. Given the lack of specialist batsman it was crucial that one of the batters hung about for most of the innings and Russ did this to the letter. With overs running out Ben and young Tom stayed till the end of the innings, to set Kettering 156 to win.
After tea Kettering, made a good start taking advantage of any loose ball. As usual Bird the elder soon found his customary length and line, with the breakthrough coming in his seventh over. In the coming overs the luck was with the Kettering batsmen, as hard as father and son (Tony and Mark) tried the Kettering second wicket partnership was not broken until they had added one short of fifty, again by Tony. With early wickets at a premium the task of preventing Kettering from scoring the sixty odd runs now required with 8 wickets remaining proved beyond the Cooks. Spirited bowling by Mark and second change Syd resulted in a further 4 wickets but any luck going went with Kettering, with numerous half chances also being spilled, the game end in the 40th over, with a six giving Kettering a four wicket victory.
This was a determined performance by the seconds, suffering again from call ups to the first team and general player unavailability. There were many pleasing individual contributions but the overall performance fell short against a Kettering team who could chasing honours in Division 10 this season.