🦆 The Duck Pond

A quiet week for the willow, correspondents will note, with but a single fixture played and a single name added to the club's roll of honour. Yet where the eleven is concerned, quality has ever mattered more than quantity, and this week's entrant is worthy of note. The First Eleven - M A Atkins, opening the batting against Marden CC of Kent at home on the 30th instant, was undone by the bowling of A Foreman and returned to the pavilion for a cipher. It is his first blemish of the current season, and but the second occasion in five visits to the crease upon which he has failed to trouble the scorer, leaving him placed 24th of the 79 gentlemen who make up the club's honours board. It may be observed that Mr Atkins stands presently a contender for the season's Duck of the Year, this being but his opening entry toward that distinction for 1875, and one imagines he shall not welcome further additions to the tally before the season is out. A curious point of history attends the date, for on this very day in 1868 one J Amies likewise walked back for nought, upon that occasion against Frittenden CC, the third-placed name upon the club's all-time roll with four such disappointments to his credit. Whether the coincidence of date shall prove an omen, the correspondent leaves to wiser heads than his own. The Week in Summary One fixture, one wicket surrendered without score, and thus a week that shall trouble the club's chroniclers but lightly. Still, a single duck's egg is not to be dismissed, and Mr Atkins may take some comfort that he keeps distinguished company on this particular anniversary. Duck Hunting Season Leaderboard - M A Atkins — 1 innings, 1 duck, 100 per cent The correspondent shall await with interest the next fixture, in the sincere hope, or perhaps the sincere doubt, that further gentlemen of the eleven shall be moved to add their names to the club's ever-growing roll of dubious distinction.