Harlestone won the toss, chose to bat at an unseasonable cool and breezy Compton Park. From the start wickets tumbled, both openers fell caught behind before Harlstone had scored a run, and two more wickets fell with the score at 15. E.Slinn and G. Khanna then staged a partial recovery, but the luck of both batsmen eventually ran out leaving the visitors struggling for three figures at 60 for 6. The Cogenhoe opening bowlers had again bowled well, Bird taking four wickets and Mason two wickets. Just when it looked like the Cooks would be heading for an early tea the contribution of the Harlstone tail proved crucial, as the visitors tail cobbled together another 75 runs, with the final four batsmen all reaching double figures to set a target of 136.
The procession of batsman continued after tea with all the Cogenhoe top order failing to come to terms with the Harlstone bowling apart from Matt Morrissey, whose sensible batting was giving the Cooks some hope. At the other end the sixth wicket fell at the same score as the Harlestone innings, ensuring that the Cooks lower order needed to show similar application. All four Harlestone bowled tightly, making the most of any movement from the wicket and once Morrissey was dismissed for a match top score of 33, the writing was on the wall for the Cooks, eventually falling twenty runs short.
Overall the Cooks did not make the most of their excellent start to this game and found Harlstone’s second string resilience in all departments difficult to conquer. This was a disappointing defeat which for the moment has taken some of the steam out of the Cooks promotion push.