Richard George Duckfield (2 July 1907 – 30 December 1959) was a Welsh

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played first-class cricket for

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

between 1930 and 1938 as a right-hand bat. Largely successful between 1932 and 1938, Duckfield held for a time the record high score for any Glamorgan player – 280 against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. He retired from the game in 1938 after a loss of confidence in his own fielding, having scored exactly 7,000 runs.

Career

Born in Maesteg, then part of

but now lying within

Bridgend County Borough Bridgend County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. The county borough has a total population of 139,200 people, and contains the town of Bridgend, after which it is named. It ...

, Duckfield began as a player for various local invitational XIs as well as for Maesteg Town cricket club in 1925, and Glamorgan Club and Ground from 1926. From 1930 he began to feature for Glamorgan in the County Championship, and by 1932 he had established himself with Glamorgan and scored 1,000 runs over one season for the first time, as well as his first century against Middlesex. He would go on to score 7,000 runs for them and for the invitational 'Players' Eleven – his century during a Gentlemen v Players match drew many plaudits from '' Wisden'' in 1934. His career-high score of 280 not out, made against

in 1936, was for a time the record high score for Glamorgan. However, by 1938 a loss of confidence in the field led to his retirement from the game. Glamorgan historian Dr. A. K. Hignell noted that "he started to doubt his ability in the field and found it increasingly difficult to either catch a ball in the air or field a ball running along the ground. As this preyed on his mind, Duckfield lost his place in the county's side."

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duckfield, Dick 1907 births 1959 deaths Sportspeople from Maesteg Welsh cricketers Glamorgan cricketers Players cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945