The Cook’s first XI made the eagerly awaited trip to Campbell Park in Milton Keynes to face Stony Stratford III on what was hoped to be a decent batting track.
Skipper Goddard clearly had a game-plan and having finally won a toss, ensured the strong Cook’s batting lineup had first use of the immaculate wicket.
The opening pair of Goddard & Harrison soon got into stride yet again as the opening bowlers strived for any sort of consistency in the windy conditions and the score was rattling along nicely. Clearly the two are forming a formidable opening partnership and the 100 came up with little incident, other than the boundary fielders throwing plenty of balls back.
When Darren was given out LBW for an entertaining 65, it brought Henry Swallow to the crease with the platform to enjoy himself. With Gareth on 40no, Henry was in the mood to catch up and the ball began to be dispatched to all boroughs of Milton Keynes. The race to see who would get to a century first was on!
When Henry was out for 76, Gareth was on 85no, so it would have been close, but Henry’s innings was a Swallow-special, eight 4s and four 6s were deserving of a century, but the score was now 233-2 and the Stony team was hoping for rain, a declaration or a massive collapse.
As it turned out, they only got the declaration at the end of the 47th over with a gargantuan 302-5dec the final score. GG reached another deserved century, and no-one can accuse him of being watchful or slow, as it included seventeen 4s in a final score of 118. The team’s total was the joint third highest league score in club history, which given the excellent batting track, we assumed would be needed to have a chance of bowling out a team on it.
After tea, the Cook’s bowlers knew they had to be on their game to get amongst the subdued Stony team who felt the Cook’s ‘had more than enough runs’. Alex and Buster bowled well, with both causing more problems in the first 10 overs than Stony managed during the entire first innings. When the Stony skipper was snaffled at mid-off by Harrison, the next pair began to look more comfortable, so it took the unnerving sight of Fletcher ‘Cosmo’ Callaghan bowling an over of outrageous filth to panic them into a suicidal run. Alex H-J promptly converted the run out and the scent of victory began to fill the air as Nick Lester came on to bowl.
The Stony batsmen didn’t seem to know whether to block or chase and ended up doing neither as Nick-did-what-Nick-does and took six wickets, including catches by Swallow [2], Harvey-Jones [2] and Harrison, plus an LBW. Dan McLaughlin completed the rout as he struck with his second wicket and the game was over with a huge 219 run victory against the team sitting 4th before play started.
This was as convincing a win as you get in cricket, but doesn’t understate the great batting performances from the top order, plus the graft the bowlers had to put in to bowl a side out on a pitch that was a credit to Division 5.
The final learning point from the game….don’t forget to get your jugs in chaps!!!