🦆 The Duck Pond

A modest but honest showing this week, gentlemen: four of our number were sent back to the pavilion without troubling the scorer, all in the one fixture against Town Malling CC, away from home. The willow, on this occasion, proved a stubborn friend to few. 1st XI Opening the innings and opening the account for ignominy was F S W Cornwallis, caught by W R Stratton off the bowling of X Brooker without addition to the total. This stands as his third career duck in two-and-twenty innings, placing him twelfth of the two hundred and one names on our roll of honour — a tally shared exactly by A Tapsfield of the 1881 vintage, among a distinguished company of fellow sufferers. At number four, G Knight fell to the bowling of T Carr, his solitary duck of the season and the first of his career in five innings — forty-first of the two hundred and one, and drawing level on a single career cipher with the late A Barker, that gentleman's name forever bound to Duck of the Year 1885. Number seven brought G D Hale to the wicket and swiftly away again, caught by Captain Stratford off X Brooker — his first career duck in a brief three-innings apprenticeship, keeping him level with Mr Knight on a solitary nought apiece, forty-ninth upon the roll. And at number eight, F King made his first appearance for the club and, alas, his first acquaintance with the duck's egg in the same afternoon, bowled by T Carr without scoring. A debut long to be remembered for reasons other than runs, and he too joins the populous fraternity sitting upon a single career duck. The week in summary One match, four ducks, and Town Malling's bowlers — Messrs Carr and Brooker chief among them — evidently in fine and unforgiving form. A tidy illustration that the art of not scoring remains, as ever, within reach of veteran and newcomer alike. Duck Hunting Season Leaderboard - Captain Bowles — 1 innings, 1 duck, 100.00% - F King — 2 innings, 1 duck, 50.00% - G D Hale — 2 innings, 1 duck, 50.00% - G Knight — 2 innings, 1 duck, 50.00% - S Christopherson — 3 innings, 1 duck, 33.33% The exclusive zero club stands ready to welcome fresh members at the next fixture, as it always does, with the same courteous indifference to reputation. Members are respectfully reminded that consistency of a very particular kind is still consistency, and are warmly invited to observe — or contribute to — whatever further additions the coming Saturday may bring.

Three visits to the pavilion without troubling the scorer are recorded this week, the whole sorry business confined, as it happens, to the First Eleven. The exclusive zero club welcomes its latest subscribers below. The First Eleven Mr Jack Fryer opened proceedings on the 8th, at home to the Royal Engineers CC, going the way of all willow-wielders at the hands of Mr F G Guggisberg, bowled without addition to the total from the number six position. This is his season's first cipher and his sixth in a career of nineteen innings, a record of consistency that secures him second place of 197 in the club's roll of honour, and he may reflect, with whatever comfort the fact affords, that he was named Duck of the Year for 1891. He finds himself level, on exactly six career ducks, with a Mr W H Fryer, who plied his trade for the club between 1867 and 1885 — a namesake, so far as the records show, rather than a relation, though the coincidence of surname is a pleasing one for the historian. The Eton Ramblers CC proved a most obliging visitor on the 12th, claiming two of our men in the same fixture. Captain Bowles, sent in first, was bowled by Mr C Heseltine without scoring — a maiden innings and a maiden duck together, the gentleman's very first appearance for the club yielding nothing but a cipher, and thereby securing him the Duck of the Year honour for the present season of 1892 at the first attempt. It is recorded that on this very day in 1867, a Mr G a K Simpson likewise returned to the pavilion for nought, against the 1st Innings of Leeds Park CC — history, it seems, is fond of an anniversary. Batting at seven in the same innings, Mr S Christopherson was bowled by Mr G J Foljambe for nought, his first duck of the season and the first of his career, in a modest eight innings to date, placing him 67th of 197 in the club's long ledger of the dismissed. He shares his parallel with the same Mr Simpson of 1867, who made his own duck on this date against Leeds Park CC — a distinguished, if unwitting, anniversary companion. The Week in Summary Three matches, three ducks, and two of our batsmen despatched in a single afternoon by the Eton Ramblers — a fixture that shall not soon be forgotten by those concerned. No pairs, no families of ducks, and no king's ransom of ignominy this week, merely the steady, dependable arithmetic of nought. Duck Hunting Season Leaderboard - Captain Bowles — 1 innings, 1 duck, 100 per cent - Jack Fryer — 2 innings, 1 duck, 50 per cent - S Christopherson — 3 innings, 1 duck, 33.33 per cent The season is young and the willow treacherous. Members are cordially reminded that the next fixture shall doubtless furnish fresh candidates for these pages, and the committee awaits their contributions with its customary anticipation.