Donaghadee 1st XV welcomed Cooke to Donaldson Park in the first home Qualifying One game of the season and quickly established an early authority with out-half Mark Cooper kicking two penalties. Cooke struck back with a penalty of their own through their No. 10 David Elliott before a clever reverse pass from the Dee’s Chris Hamilton to his skipper Alastair Lockhart after picking up from a re-set 5m scrum led to the latter touching down for an unconverted try in the corner. With the Dee then seeking to capitalise on their advantage with sustained pressure on the Cooke line a fumbled ball led to the Belfast side’s blindside flanker running almost the length of the pitch to score under the posts. Although the Dee scrummage was operating exceptionally well in the first half the Cooke pack rediscovered their composure early in the second but with ten minutes played in the second half the Dee stretched their lead when centre Ryan Irvine benefitted from Cooke failing to tidy up in their own 22 scoring under the posts with Cooper adding the extras to leave the score 18-10 in the Dee’s favour with half an hour to play. The turning point came when the Dee lost the returning Ian Martindale who was yellow-carded for an alleged late tackle and his absence afforded Cooke the opportunity to take control of the game and eventually they overtook the home side through a combination of well-placed penalties from Elliott in the difficult swirling breeze and presence of Player-Coach Colin Atkinson in the centre who orchestrated his side’s comeback with some clever driving play through the midfield which led to two further tries converted by Elliott not helped ny poor Dee defence. The Dee replied with a Cooper penalty before the never say die attitude and heart of the more senior players led to the try of the game when Billy Allen received the ball at half way and fed debutant Andy McGrugan who drew his man and gave a well weighted pass back inside to Allen to finish in the bottom corner. Cooper added the extras leaving the final score 36-25 in favour of Cooke. A disappointing result then for the Dee men but with a few stalwarts missing in the young backline - including Paul McKenzie and Nigel Barker – hopes are high that Saturday’s result represents a blip and the 1st XV will return to form this Saturday when they face Holywood in the Junior Cup at Donaldson Park.