Standard late spring weather greeted the players to a grey chilly fortress Compton. The seconds third game of the season being the quick return fixtures against St Crispin’s & Rylands fourths.
Skipper Mark gladly won the toss and predictably chose to bowl on a fairly grassy track. The opening bowlers, Tony Bird & Sid Mason soon found their length and line, giving the batsmen plenty to think about. Celebrations were soon aplenty when Sid cleaned bowled batsmen one to gain his 400th league wicket in a Cogenhoe shirt, incidentally another Cogenhoe stalwart Dan McLaughlin reached the same landmark around two hours later in the kingdom of Rothwell. The oppositions batsmen struggled from the off, finding Tony’s bowling almost impossible to hit off the square, four maidens from five over giving testament to this fact. Two wickets followed for Tony in his sixth and seventh overs. Any supply of runs were stifled by the veteran Cogenhoe bowlers, only sporadic boundaries providing the scoreboard operator Dave with limited activity. After 20 overs with both bowlers out of time the scoreboard reflected their superiority, 29 for 3.
After the drinks break Mark replaced Tony and James Bushell Mister 400. The batsmen’s war of attrition continued and although a wicket did not fall for almost another ten overs, Mark and James provided the fourth wicket pair with a searching examination. Mark made the breakthrough and added that with another wicket to sweep away any pretensions of a useful target for C & R. Another landmark followed in the 34th over when 15 year old James claimed his first wicket in senior cricket, courtesy of a classy slip catch from Tony. The last overs proved to be a damp squib for the opposition as the Cooks stemmed any further flow of runs to leave themselves to chase a modest ninety two run target.
The Cooks reply started a little hesitantly but both openers took a patient stance given that the run rate required was only a little over 2 runs an over. Just when it seemed that the Cooks were travelling smoothly towards victory, three wickets fell quite quickly Russ 22, Jack 10 and Adam 27. With such a small target to chase only 20 more runs were required and once Ben found his batting touch it did not take long for the Cooks to claim the prize.
This victory was built on solid tight bowling from the opening pair, with pleasing back up from the skipper, young James and Adam. The team showed good togetherness in the field, indicating that even with the inevitable summer absences the seconds should be competitive in Division 11