First XI vs. Kettering Town – 6th May 2017
Many of us are used to seeing Matt Mo mow some shots to the boundary (usually through the leg side), but this Saturday saw Matt joined by Paul Knight, Fletch Callaghan, Nick Lester, Ryan Knight and Jake Morrissey in mowing not just the leg side but the whole outfield at Compton Park after thieves stole Cogenhoe United F.C’s mowers. The 2 hour mowing warm up was followed shortly after by captain Gareth Goddard losing another toss and being asked to bat by Kettering Town.
When Cogenhoe lost early wickets GG (1), Callaghan (10) Henry Swallow and Dan McLaughlin set about putting the outfield to good use with boundary shots a plenty. When Dan fell for 27 Matt Mow joined Henry at the crease. Henry, who’s elegant cover drives are a thing of beauty was in full flow at one end, whilst matt struggled to find the middle of the bat, with seemingly every good shot he hit finding a fielder for no run.
Henry’s brisk scoring was ended 2 runs short of a much deserved 50, but any fears of a Cogenhoe collapse were eased by a reassuring solidarity that Adam Lee-Brown brought to the Cooks innings. Whilst in the scorebook an innings of 21 may not look remarkable, the time Adam occupied the crease and the partnership with Matt Mow was instrumental in the Cooks posting a giant 258 all out off 49.1 overs. Matt Mow was the last wicket to fall, top scoring with an impressive 81.
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Cooks took to the field brimming with confidence that their 258 would unlikely to be chased down, but due to the oddities of the Northants Cricket Leagues rules they would need to take all 10 Kettering wickets to win the game. Alex Harvey-Jones set about this task in style, clean bowling the two Kettering openers, before the score reached double figures. With any attempt at a chase by Kettering looking unlikely the Cooks side focussed on picking up wickets. However drops from R.Knight and N.Lester seemed to be proving costly as the Kettering middle order put up solid resistance batting with the impressive Rob Starsmore. When Starsmore reached a chanceless 100 with little more than 5 overs remaining for the Cooks to pick up the final 2 wickets the game seemed to be drifting towards a draw.
However Buster who’s first spell ended with possibly the finest over division 5 will see all year, came back for his second spell which drew the only chance from the bat of Strasmore all afternoon. It was that time for people of nervous disposition to look away as the ball flew into, and then out of keeper Browning’s Teflon gloves! However the story, or in fact the delivery did not end there, as in what felt like slow motion, Browning (or Teffers as he’s kown for his non-stick gloves) had 3 further attempts to keep hold of the elusive ball that was slipping in and out of his grasp like a bar of soap. Finally to the delight of the Cooks side he hung on leaving the Cogenhoe one wicket away from victory with 3 overs remaining. Shortly after captain Goddard completed the job taking the final wicket LBW, which credit where credit is due was given by Kettering umpire Shashi Dholakia with just 14 balls remaining.
With Matt Mow being the superstitious kind calls have already been made ahead to Rothwell warning them he may well be at the ground early next week to give the ground a quick trim before the start of the game. Remember to follow on Twitter @CogenhoeCC for all the latest news, events and live score updates.