The Cooks welcomed Thrapston thirds to Compton Park, stand-in skipper Russ Coleman duly lost the toss and the Cooks, predictably, were invited to bat. The innings was only five balls old when Russ succumbed to a useful ball from the oppositions left armer and was caught behind. It became apparent that batting was not going to be easy with the Thrapston attack making good use of the helpful conditions. Jack Quennell soon joined his skipper back in our “pavillon” and Adam Lee–Brown joined remaining opener Adam Langley. Batting remained to be a struggle with both Adam’s being forced to provide watchful defense especially against the left armer at the village end. Mr Longley was the luckier of the two batsmen surviving several scares but his determination for the cause was admirable. Thirty eight crucial runs were added until Adam L-B departed leaving the opener with task of trying to push the score along with new batsmen Ben Garratt.
In the 30th over Trotty’s luck ran out as he found the fielder and was caught for a defiant 34. This left the responsibility with Ben to post a challenging target, though, having difficulty laying bat on ball when he did it fizzed to the boundary. Just when it looked like 150 was a possible target Ben was bowled for 31. The Cooks sights now had to be lowered, target wise, but given previous games this season the posted target of 127, would be a challenge.
After tea the Cooks opening bowlers Tony and Sid soon used the conditions to their advantage, dismissing both openers and after 6 overs the score of 7 for 2 gave the opposition plenty to think about. Although the Cooks bowlers were in the ascendancy the fielder were not able to hang on to the feasible chances presented to them by the aggressive batting of the opposition number three batsmen. These missed chances allowed the third wicket pair to add over fifty runs until one risky shot to many allowed Adam L-B to bowl the dangerous number 3 and give the Cooks hope. When another batsmen was dismissed on the same score of 61, the game was now perfectly poised. A defiant stand followed from the next two batsmen who were edging the opposition towards the target, the two change bowlers Adam L-B and young James Bushell were not making this easy as the run rate was creeping up towards to 5 runs an over. With the score at 106 a miraculous catch from Adam L-B turned the game on its head and break a potential game winning stand. The tension heightened and the pressure rose on the remaining batsmen. Sensible bowling from the returning Sid and new bowler Trotty ensured that the Cooks narrowly won the game as the bowlers strangled scoring shots from Thrapstons lower order.
The Cooks can take were many positives from this performance and if a number of chances had been taken the margin of victory may have been larger. All the bowlers contributed well as a unit but the batsmen still need to produce consistency to unable the bowlers good work is not in vain.