[1] He paid around £1,000 to have hundreds of tonnes of clay imported from Nottinghamshire, England to ensure a top-class playing surface, constructed an indoor cricket school, and hired half a dozen English professional cricketers.
[2] Two years later, Cochrane's personal XI played the touring Australians at Woodbrook.
[2] He also succeeded in attracting professional cricketers to play for the club, including Len Braund, Aubrey Faulkner, Charlie Llewellyn, Hugh Massie, Ernie Vogler, and Teddy Wynyard.
[2] In the final years of the club's existence, crowd attendances began to drop, and in a desperate measure to revive the club's fortunes, Cochrane attempted to get the deciding Test match of the 1912 Triangular Tournament between England and Australia to be played at Woodbrook, but this request was denied by both boards.
[1] Disenchanted by this decision, he wound up the club in 1913 and opted to construct a golf course in its place.