The 1st XI bowed out of the Village Cup on Sunday after falling to a four wicket defeat against Gloucestershire side Frocester, who brought a large contingent of supporters from the West Country.  

We won the toss and chose to bat, eventually posting 164 for 7 from our 40 overs. Sohil Mangat top-scored with a watchful 63 and he was well supported by Yasir Qureshi who made 38. The off-spin of Aaron Tuck (5-25) triggered a middle order collapse, however, which meant that the score was slightly below what had been hoped for at 102 for 2 from 28 overs. Some late hitting from James le Fleming pushed Cookham towards a competitive total. Frocester's youthful side meant their fielding was strong throughout and their bowlers rarely gave much away. 

Their openers set about the chase at a rapid pace but a fine catch from Ben Millar at mid-on saw Cookham make the breakthrough. Frocester continued to bat aggressively but slipped from 50-1 to 53-4 with the introduction of off-spinners Sav Gandesha and Simret Mangat, club legend Gandesha picked up his 500th wicket in the process. He picked up two more wickets with the score on 89 and 93 respectively.

From there, and with a crowd building, the home side looked strong favourites to reach the last eight for the first time since 2016. A fine partnership between Fin Dixon and Tuck began to steadily build, however, and The Dean attack just couldn't prise them out. Qureshi came close to taking an outstanding catch in the gully, which would have removed Dixon, but unfortunately he couldn't hold on. Dixon finished on 65 not out, finishing the game with a 6 just as Will Dempster had done for CDCC against Sarisbury the week before. Frocester will meet North Perrot of Somerset next week and we wish them the best of luck for the rest of the competition. 

After the disappointment of this defeat, club members and supporters were entertained by an outdoor socially-distanced comedy night which took place on our outfield. The night was compered by Ivo Graham (when not being heckled by Mike Cutting or Frazer Finlan) and acts included Iain Stirling, Phil Wang and Eshaan Akbaar. In a year of few social events, it was a great to see such an incredible turnout at the club for this. The comedians had spent their day playing our Sunday Friendly XI at The Odney Club with CDCC winning by 47 runs. A photo gallery of the evening can be found here.