A cloudy dry but not unpleasant day welcomed the players to Compton Park, the visitors on this the sixth game of the campaign were Great Houghton Seconds. Captain Mark won the toss and put the opposition in to bat. Right from the start the batsmen were on the back foot ( a theme throughout the game) and it did not take Tony Bird long, his second over to claim the first scalp. Tony made the visitors struggle for every run and though the batsmen found scoring a little easier at the other end, by the time drinks were taken the score was sedate 60-3. The opposition needed to push on and though the fourth wicket pair were far from convincing they were building a useful stand. The pendulum then swung back to the Cooks with the introduction of Frankie Perkins first breaking the stand of 73 then next ball claiming a further wicket both clean bowled. Frankie broke the stumps twice more to ensure Houghton were restricted to 160 in their allotted overs, a target which was by no means daunting.
On the resumption Jack Quennell was soon bowled by the impressive Briggs. Ben Garratt joined opener Russ and though batting was a struggle they added a valuable 34 before Russ succumbed to that man Briggs. Enter stage front Phil Whiteman, Ben had found a willing partner who with a mixture of sound attacking shots and a smattering of that well known shot “the Cogenhoe leave” had reduced the target to less than sixty runs, until Phil was caught out going for one chancy shot too many. Ben’s innings was a revelation, though finding the bowling taxing at times his determined style of batting was wowing the assembled throng. Not afraid to attack the bad ball he now dominated proceedings even though a further 3 wickets fell in the run chase. Ben ensured that the Cooks would not be denied and target was reached with 11 balls to spare much to the delight of the Cogenhoe contingent.
This was a well contested game where the Cooks just held the upper hand in all three departments of the game. There were many pleasing aspects to the Cooks performance especially the batting line up, which is now showing more confidence, that they can back up the efforts of the bowlers.