Essex hopes of making a List A Final for the first time since 2008 were dashed when Glamorgan gained a 5-wickets victory at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Monday.

After the Eagles scintillating success over Yorkshire 48 hours earlier, there were realistic hopes that Tom Westley’s men could go all the way to the final and lift the 50-overs trophy for the first time in more than a decade.

But it was not to be.

Elder statesman Sir Alastair Cook provided the ingredients for potential Essex victory with a sumptuous 68 from 66 balls before he was stumped off a leg-side wide, but it was Glamorgan all-rounder Joe Cooke that found the recipe for success returning career-best List A figures with both bat and ball in a personal Michelin star-rated performance.

The 25 year-old took 5 for 61 to restrict the visitors to 289 all out before hitting a match-winning unbeaten 66 to allow his side to feast on victory after they had been 182 for 5 at one stage.

For Westley and his side, it was major disappointment as they reflect on a season that will leave them without a trophy for the first time in three years.

“It’s disappointing and never nice to lose a knock-out game,” he said. “It was disappointing that we were not able to defend our total. But overall, the cricket we have played this season has been great and it’s a huge positive for us to reach a semi-final but again the disappointment is not being able to go that one step further.

“But I’m really proud of the guys in the changing room for their effort.”

The skipper did agree that by way of consolation, there have been crumbs of comfort not least the emergence of a number of seriously young talented cricketers.

“It’s not been all doom and gloom because I think it really has been a positive campaign,” he continued. “We’ve given debuts to a number of players and the way that they have played has been phenomenal and that’s a good sign for the club moving forward.

“That said, it is a professional sport at the end of the day and we want to win trophies and we’ve come up short and we need to reflect and review on that.

“So, there are a few learning points for the guys, we need to review what we can do differently and hopefully what we’ve experienced in this campaign will make us better in the future.”

Feroze Khushi and Josh Rymell became the first batsmen since Dan Lawrence in 2015, to emerge through the Essex Academy and post a century in any format for the county and that is an exciting aspect for the future of Essex Cricket as Westley concurred.

“It’s a huge positive and the way both have played in the backend of this campaign has been outstanding and they have probably achieved more than what was expected of them at this stage,” he agreed.

“But Feroze and Josh have both been outstanding. To score List A hundreds is a tough thing to achieve and for them to do that so early in their careers is brilliant and that will give them a lot of positives

“Also, I want to mention Ben Allison and Jack Plom. Maybe they will be disappointed on how they bowled at Cardiff but they’ve done a really tough job for us during the campaign and opening the bowling in white ball cricket in this day and age isn’t easy.

“So, one of the highlights of this competition has been that a number of youngsters have really stepped up and put their names in the hat – not just for 50 overs cricket but for other formats as well.

“So that is a huge shining light moving forward and really exciting for us as a club.