Geoffrey William Cook (born 9 February 1936) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played mainly for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. He was born in Beckenham in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Geoffrey Cook

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-04-19. and attended Dulwich College before going up to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

in 1955.Miscellaneous matches played by Geoffrey Cook
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-19.Queens College Cricket Club

. Retrieved 2017-04-19. He later became an Honorary Life Patron of the Queens' College Cricket Club. Cook played Second XI cricket for

from 1954 to 1959, appearing in both the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

and the

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...

for the team.Geoffrey Cook
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-19. He made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

debut for Cambridge against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

at Fenner's in May 1956 before going on to play 37 times for the University between 1956 and 1958, winning a cricket Blue and playing in two

University match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

es.Past Cricket Internationals & Blues

. Retrieved 2017-04-19. In the 1957 University Match he batted in a partnership with

Gamini Goonesena Gamini Goonesena (16 February 1931 – 1 August 2011), born in Colombo, was a first-class cricketer from Ceylon who played prior to his country being granted Test status. A gifted allrounder who was a right-handed batsman and a legbreak and goog ...

worth 289 runs for the seventh wicket with Cook scoring 111 runs. This set a record for the highest partnership for any wicket by either side in University Matches and the record partnership in first-class cricket for the seventh wicket at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, both records which still stand as of April 2017.Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood - Highest partnership for each wicket in first-class cricket
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-19. Cook made four First XI appearances for Kent in the

1957 County Championship The 1957 County Championship was the 58th officially organised running of the County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket ...

and, after he had completed his degree, also turned out in first-class cricket for

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Willi ...

and

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC).His final first-class appearance was in 1961, playing for LC Stevens XI against his old University having appeared in a total of 47 first-class matches. Between 1967 and 1970 he made seven appearances for

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

in the Minor Counties Championship.

References

External links

* 1936 births English cricketers Kent cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Berkshire cricketers Living people L. C. Stevens' XI cricketers Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Cricketers from the London Borough of Bromley People from Beckenham {{England-cricket-bio-1930s-stub