There's been no shortage of domestic cricket over the past few weeks and with all that has been going it would have been easy to miss a footnote in dispatches confirming that Gordon Cooke had just called time on his 30-plus year club career.

No doubt there will be many who thought that the former Ireland International had retired long ago, but that's not the case. Years after his epitaph had been written he was still strutting his stuff for Coleraine and then joined Bonds Glen with his brother David just before Covid made its presence felt.

A horrible accent at work saw him very lucky not to lose his hand and now four years and seven operations later, the 48-year old has accepted that there won't be a swansong season. 

"It's been a really frustrating time for me and each time I had surgery I was hopeful that I might be able to get a couple of seasons at Bonds Glen before bowing out. I never managed to get as far as the nets though, despite the medical folk doing their very best for me, and that's it for me now."

Looking back on a career that included (70) Ireland caps and countless domestic awards, Cooke felt there was little he would have changed if he had the option.

"It's a career that obviously wasn't without its moments, but cricket has been really good to me. I've met some great people and made lifelong friends. 

"There are one or two things I look back on; for example the first time that David and I were called into the same Ireland squad I was at Ardmore and I opted to play for them instead of going to Dublin. Your club looked after you and playing for Ireland in those days was often a costly venture, however priorities change and it probably would have been a different call now.

Gordon, like David, caught the cricket bug following his dad Sidney to Cumber Claudy throughout those early summer evenings and by the time he was 14 he had, via Berryburn, made his way to Eglinton.

"I played my first senior game for the villagers against Brigade and I opened the batting. I remember Mark Simpson hitting me with a bouncer early in the game and one of his team-mates suggesting he 'ease up' against a young kid.

Mark replied 'If he's good enough to open the batting he's good enough to deal with those. He was right- I carried my bat to make 73 not out."

The Cooke boys rarely settled for too long in one place, and although Gordon was to spend the best part of 12 seasons in total at Brigade, he acknowledges the role Eglinton as a club and Hendy Wallace as an individual was to play in his development. 

"Hendy was brilliant with me- night after night in the field down there was to play a big part in me being able to develop my skills for senior cricket."

The trophies and medals soon followed- (11) senior league and (9) senior cups to be precise; winning the Irish Senior Cup as well with both Brigade and Limavady.

Reflecting on his time in North West cricket, Gordon had little hesitation in naming that Limavady team of 1997 as the best he had ever played in.

"We went through an entire season undefeated- winning everything including the Irish Senior Cup. That was an incredible team and it's difficult to imagine that happening again anytime soon."

His first Ireland appearance came in 1994- a friendly against Scotland in Glasgow- but he never seemed to become an ever-present early on. Indeed it's fair to say (and he acknowledges himself) that his Ireland career came in three separate phases.

One of his many highlights includes representing  Northern Ireland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games; something that still brings a glint to his eye today.

He also speaks very highly of his North West Interprovincial team-mates in those post- Guinness Cup days when North West cricket was on a real high.

"You're afraid to start naming guys because you'll end up leaving a few out but just off the top of my head you had David (Cooke), Decker, the McBrines, the Gillespies, Ricky McDaid, Allan Rutherford, Chris Moore, SG Smyth...that was some generation of players." 

Of all the International highlights, one of his favourites is playing against Scotland and getting 'sledged' by Andy Goram, the Glasgow Rangers goalkeeper. After listening for a bit, Gordon pointed out to Goram that he had been at the game the previous week where he had pulled off several great saves.

By the end of the week, Goram was giving Cooke a tour of the Glasgow stadium!

Of course the one story that everyone remembers is the 2004 game between Ireland and the West Indies at Stormont.

"That was a strange day alright" he said.

"Brian Lara was going through the gears that day and I had the whole family up to watch. Lara hit a huge six into the trees at the bottom corner and we knew one of the children playing there had been hit by the ball. 

"A couple of minutes later I saw my dad carrying my son Curtis to an ambulance, although he was calling to me that he was OK. Then, a few minutes later I was running in to bowl and my ankle gave way. I knew it was bad and I was carried off and into the same ambulance as Curtis. 

"Thankfully were were both OK in time and Curtis still has Lara's signed gloves and the ball (with blood still on it that he got for his troubles."

In many ways it's a story that serves as a testament to the career of Gordon Cooke- always in the thick of the action and rarely far away from the headlines.

He'll turn 49 later this month but insists he'll be around the grounds in the North West for some time yet.

"I'm not really a great 'watcher' although I have enjoyed my time working with the youth and helping develop the women's teams at Bonds Glen. I got plenty out of playing cricket over the years and I'd like to give something back, so I'm seriously considering umpiring as an option now."

No doubt the NWCU umpire's association would be grateful for the help, Gordy!