🧢 Captain's Log

Wed 12 Aug 1885 🧢 1st XIv ? · AwayformWLLLL

The Duck of Honour at Linton Park, 12 August 1885

We set off with high hopes, as ever, and the coin fell kindly enough — first use of the ball, and for a while it looked rather promising. X Latter turned in a spell to make the shoulder ache just watching, six wickets tumbling to his loop and turn, while Arthur Cornwallis and W H Fryer chipped in a wicket apiece to round things off tidily. W W Hubble departed without so much as a nibble, which pleased us no end. Still, W Best's 29 and C Golding's 21 did enough damage that the innings got away from us rather more than the bowling figures suggested it should.

Then came our reply, and here the tale turns tragic in the way only village cricket can manage. L Barker stood firm for 23 not out, and deserves every credit for it — indeed, those runs carried him past J Down and up to 23rd on the club's all-time run-scorers list, a small mercy amid the wreckage. Less gloriously, A Barker, X Latter and F Danells all trudged back for ducks, three quacks in a single card that will live long in the ledger. Tom Peach Snr's three wickets did at least see him leapfrog E Tootell into 16th on the all-time wicket-takers list, so the history books had their fun even if the scoreboard did not.

Beaten by 191 runs, then — a proper hiding, no dressing it up. But Latter's spin and Barker's obduracy give us something to build on, and we'll be better for it next week.

Fri 26 Jun 1885 🧢 House Teamv The Mote CC · Homeform—

Friday last, 26 June 1885, saw The Mote CC visit us at home, and my luck with the coin remains as reliable as an English summer — they called correctly and had no hesitation in batting first. Into the field we trooped, and for a while I permitted myself a flicker of optimism, for Tom Peach Snr was in irresistible form, spinning a web through their order for five wickets without conceding a run, the sort of spell that makes a captain look far cleverer than he has any right to. N T Nickolls chipped in handsomely with four, and Arthur Cornwallis picked up one for good measure. Yet E Hickmott, with a well-made 25, and F M Atkins, with 21 in support, did enough to see the visitors safely all out — though not before we had the satisfaction of sending F Warde back for a golden duck.

Our reply, alas, never quite found its rhythm, save for N T Nickolls, who batted with real application for 40 and carried the innings almost single-handedly before we, too, were dismissed. It proved not nearly enough, and we came away beaten by 114 runs — a chastening margin by any measure.

There was, at least, cause for quiet pride amid the wreckage: Nickolls's 40 lifts him past F Warde to 17th on the club's all-time run-scoring list, while F J Barmby's tally of seven wickets this season sees him leapfrog Nickolls into 17th among our wicket-takers. Small mercies. Not our day, in truth — heads up, and back to the nets.