The Cooks travelled the short journey to second placed Great Houghton seconds with games running out in this season’s fight against relegation. Circumstances again conspired that the Cooks were fielding first on a greenish track. In a sensational start to the game the first four Houghton batsmen were dismissed for just ten runs. The first two to Sid the next one to Tony and then a superb direct run out from the nimble Trotty. The Cooks were now on top with both bowlers using the helpful pitch to keep the fifth wicket pair in check. When both bowlers had completed their both stint the score had limped on to 35 at the drinks interval.
After the break Houghton’s batsmen began to assert with 50 runs taken off the next 5 overs with the batsmen being particularly harsh on the bowling of senior debutante James Bushell. Adam Lee-Brown then brought a little order to proceedings clean bowling Osborn for 51. Unfortunately for the Cooks this partnership had undone a lot of the earlier good work. Adam bowling in tandem with skipper Mark ensured the run scoring justly slowed. Mark soon after taking a deserved wicket suffered the misfortune to suffer a side strain, but Adam had every move covered in taking 3 of the last 4 wickets, with the last wicket snared by Stuart Town in a rare Cogenhoe appearance.
The performance in the field by the Cooks, given the lofty position of their opponents showed the total commitment of every member of this Cogenhoe side though misfortune and dropped catches meant they were chasing a total larger than maybe the hosts batting deserved.
After a tasty tea prepared by the local pub, the hosts claimed a wicket with the last ball of the first over which was the start of a batting struggle for the Cooks. With the batting line-up again lacking depth, it was vital that further wickets were not lost. Helped by wayward bowling Trotty and Adam looked to be steering the ship into calmer waters until Trotty played onto to his stumps. Adam who had scored most of the runs was soon after dismissed for a bright 29 with the wounded skipper soon following much of the experienced batting had been erased. The last six wickets doubled the score but there was a feeling that the bowlers always had the upper hand in the run chase, with the Cooks falling 38 runs short.
This was good performance by the Cooks especially as this was not the strongest side given current player availability. During this season the opposition seem to have always benefited from dropped catches and have made the Cooks pay dearly, this game was no exception. With more specialist batsmen the opposition could have been punished for their wayward bowling, as extras were top score (35) in the Cooks innings and two batsmen reprieved off no balls.