It was another glorious day and Sandair was looking particularly beautiful for the visit of third place Carlisle 2nds. The city team have had quite a good year so far and have been difficult to beat so this was going to be the Cockermouth 2nds second big test within a fortnight coming on the back of the visit of Scotby in the last home game at Sandair for the seconds.

The Carlisle skipper won the toss and elected to bat no doubt with the very hot weather and a fast outfield at the back of his mind. With Mark'King of the Mountains' Bowen away on Tour de France duty and Drakey, Ben Morgan, Matty Hodgson, Ryan Todhunter and Jack Spiers also missing it was a very changed team that took the field for Cockermouth. However this is a very resilient Second eleven and any player coming into it comes into a team who have a great team spirit and work ethic which quickly rubs off on incoming players.

Tom 'Swing King' Morgan opened the bowling with Deano and both soon had the Carlisle batsmen groping outside their off stumps. Tom especially was bowling beautiful away swing allied to an excellent length. This accurate bowling was backed up with outstanding fielding, probably the best so far this year and some excellent carlisle shots were fielded much to the dismay of the batsmen. This type of fielding began to frustrate the batsmen and soon wickets began to fall, only Whitfield of the Carlisle top order was managing to pierce the field with some regularity even though a lot of his shots were also stopped by some brilliant diving stops. Tom bowled beautifully in his first spell picking up 2 wickets and with Jack Edmondson coming on for Dean at the other end and picking up another wicket Carlisle were soon 3 down. The introduction of the skipper usually makes something happen and with the last over before drinks to go and 2 balls left the wily skipper picked up on a conversation between the carlisle batsmen with the non striker telling the facing player to bat the over out to drinks even though he was itching to have a go at the spinner, so a tossed up bowl caused allsorts of psychological mayhem and ended back in the skippers hands for a caught and bowled. After this the watchful Whitehead who had batted well played an uncharacteristic shot across the line and was LBW. With mark Middleton picking up a wicket and Tom returning to claim a further 2 wickets the Carlisle innings ended on 142.

Sometimes scores like this can become very difficult to get especially if early wickets are conceded, so it was a watchful opening pair of Chambers and Mason who began the Cockermouth reply. The two openers batted sensibly picking up singles and the odd boundary and the scoreboard began to tick along steadily. Jack after struggling a little to middle the ball soon found his touch with some exquisite blows through the off side, so it was a bit of a surprise when with a change of bowling a ball found the smallest of gaps between his bat and pad and bowled him. Liam Jackson joined the skipper and again was looking good when a slow bowl caught him out. Amidst all of this the skipper was finding some good form himself and was extremely punishing of former Carlisle firsts opening bowler Simon Plevin. The skipper reahed his 50 with a flicked 4 behind square. With Jack Edmondson now joining him at the crease both players set about the Carlisle bowling. Edmo is quite an unorthodox player and bowlers might sometimes be fooled into thinking they are bowling at a lower order player but they would be foolish to think this as he has a great eye and quick hands and no fear, and so it proved as he dispatched several off side deliveries to the leg side boundary. Another good win by 8 wickets for the seconds, played in an excellent spirit and well umpired by Dave Irving.