COOKHILL were comfortably beaten by eight wickets at Cotswold Hills League Division Three leaders Earlswood 2nds on Saturday.
The Roosters were again only able to muster nine players and arrived to face a strong Earlswood team in good form.
After losing the toss, Cookhill were asked to bat first and opener Dan Mills set the tone for a fine innings with a boundary form the first ball.
However, despite starts from Nick Charles (16), Martin Jackson (15) and Stuart Griffiths (15no), wickets fell regularly at the other end, resulting in no real support for Mills to build upon and he eventually fell for a solid 62 as Cookhill were dismissed for 153.
The feeling was, given the circumstances, this was not a bad effort with the bat and, but for some cheap wickets and two missing players, the Roosters felt they could have posted a more competitive total.
Earlswood came out of the blocks firing after tea, smashing 16 from a poor first over, and the Roosters were desperately short on bowling and an injury to opening bowler Simon Edmunds after just three overs (1-12) saw things go from bad to worse.
Neil Shuttleworth (1-41 from ten overs) offered some resistance, as did an interesting spell of spin from wicketkeeper Stuart Griffiths (0-35) after the injured Edmunds had donned the gloves.
In the end though, Stuart Reeve (57no) and Guy Massey (68no) saw the home side to victory comfortably in just the 26th over.
Cookhill skipper James Baylis said: “Some clubs may have been tempted to concede the game prior to starting, having just nine available.
“However, we decided to give it a go and full credit to the nine players who went out and represented the club.
“We hope to have several key players back for the return fixture at our place this weekend and give them a real game. It’s a frustrating time for the club at the moment.”
