Chris Cooke led from the front with a relentless captain's innings of 205 not out as Glamorgan spent day two of their LV= Insurance County Championship second division match against Surrey constructing a mammoth total of 672 for 6 declared, the home side responding with 45 for no wicket in the final hour.
It was the first double-hundred of Cooke's 12-year first-class career, beating a previous best of 171 scored seven years ago, and also the highest individual innings by a Glamorgan wicketkeeper, eclipsing Eifion Jones’s unbeaten 146 against Sussex at Hove in 1968.
“It feels pretty good, it was a really good day as the whole batting unit batted really nicely on a very good wicket, but there’s a little bit of spin there and a few went a bit low at the end so there could be something in it for us," said Cooke.
“Concentration is about single-ball focus, I had a good chat with the coaches at the end of last season about trying to score more hundreds so that’s something I’ve tried to target this year.
“It’s been a bit fame or famine the last few weeks but nice to put a good performance in, in the last game, and get the team in a good position.
“It’s nice to come in when there’s a good platform built and the guys up top like David Lloyd did a really good job, so that allows guys down the order to come in and feel more relaxed.
“Surrey bowled well in the first session and it was tough to score as the ball got soft, so it was a case of staying patient and trying to rack up a big score.
“We know it’s going to be really difficult to take wickets, but there’s some rough and some foot-holds, so Salts (Andrew Salter) and Callum (Taylor) have a big job over the next two days, we’ll keep going and see where we get to.”