The seconds welcomed Brixworth Thirds to Compton on the clubs annual Presidents day. Thoughts of the coming evening barbecue delights, were far from the returning skippers thoughts (hopefully) when he won the toss and predictably chose to bowl on a dry flat track. The first 26 overs of the Brixworth innings were dominated by the Cooks opening bowlers Tony Bird and Chris Mason. Tony took a wicket with this third ball and from then on the Brixworth batsman struggled with the accuracy and variation of the veteran twirlers. Though the visitors only lost another wicket in reaching fifty, the noose tightened when 3 more wickets, all falling to Tony. Both bowlers continued to the end of their allotted overs with the Brixworth innings now in disarray and the run rate totally suffocated. Tony may have made the headlines with his five wickets, but Chris’s bowling was of equal quality, lacking in luck with dropped catches and much playing & missing.
In the following 19 overs the Brixworth lower order did well to amass a further 85 runs considering the useful 7 over spell from young Tom Robinson who took two wickets in his last over. Tom’s spell was most encouraging given that two experienced batsman were at the crease looking to push the score on. The innings ended on 144 which appeared to be quite a few runs short given the placid nature the Compton track.
In reply the Cooks openers Russ Coleman and Jack Quennell started positively and had soon added 34 before Russ was bowled, with new batsman Dan Harris also being bowled. Mark Bird joined Jack and both decided to take full advantage of any ball straying from a good length or line and once Brixworth withdrew their opening bowlers from the attack, the fun began. Mark was now regularly finding the boundary, with Jack happier to harvest his runs in two’s and three’s. The pairs cavalier style of batting was producing an increasing scoring rate and with the Cooks closing in on the target the signal was made to fire up the barbecue. Things though may have been a little different if the opposition had taken the catches offered, by both batsmen. First Jack then Mark reached their fifties and within 30 overs, the total had been reached, for a comfortable victory.
This Cooks side were just too strong for the opposition, once the opening bowlers had dominated proceedings and removed the top order, a challenging target was out of the question. On this occasion the outcome was never really in doubt, with many positives being taken from this team performance.