🦆 The Duck Pond

A single fixture at home to Bearsted CC has yielded two entries for the honours board this week, both from the 1st XI, both arriving without so much as a run to their name. 1st XI 🍩 Bert Buckoke came in at four and departed bowled by W White for a duck's egg on his very first appearance in club colours — a debut to remember for reasons entirely the wrong way round. His maiden knock joins the ledger at 1 career duck from 1 innings, good for 70th of 430 in the all-time reckoning, and he arrives straight onto the Duck of the Year 1928 board, an honour few manage before their second visit to the crease. He now sits level with the same tally as several old campaigns past — company that includes A Barker, who kept his own solitary duck on the books between 1885 and 1904. 0️⃣ Batting at ten, F Amies also made his bow for the club and was undone by Walter Watcham for nought, a plucky effort in name only. Also 1 career duck from a debut innings, ranked 91st of 430 — the numbers place him not far behind Buckoke on the same page of ignominy, and he too finds himself alongside the historic company of A Barker's single duck of long ago. Week in Summary One match, two ducks, both from the same eleven, both freshly arrived and both departing for nothing at all — a fixture that gave the 1928 season its opening entries in fine style. Whether it was a sticky wicket or simply Bearsted's bowlers finding good order, the eleven's lower and middle order alike found the art of not scoring came rather too naturally this week. Duck Hunting Season Leaderboard 🥇 Bert Buckoke — 1 innings, 1 duck, 100% 🥇 F Amies — 1 innings, 1 duck, 100% Both gentlemen open the 1928 season locked together at the summit of a table nobody wishes to top. The club awaits the next fixture with due anticipation — for the eleven's sake we hope for runs, and for the Gazette's sake we shall not complain if the ducks keep coming home to roost. 🏏