MONTHLY ROUND-UP: AUGUST 1868
August ends as it began with the City of London Club and the Royal Artillery Barracks tied at the top of the Metropolitan League standings, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of the month. The Artillery, who have led for so long in their first season in the league, lost their first two games in the month to The Regent’s Park and Angel Islington, and with the City Club extending their winning run by beating lowly Kensington and Clapham, City suddenly found themselves with a two game lead. Both teams won their next game, but the City Club then faltered, ending the month by losing to Angel and the Old Westminsters. With the Artillery recording wins against Greenwich and Kensington, the two are level again with six games each to play. The first of those is against one another on the Artillery’s home field next week, meaning that somebody will have a one game lead heading into the final five games.
Angel wasted a chance to make it a close three-way battle, as having beaten both the City Club and the Artillery they lost their next game each time. They sit two games back in third place, fractionally ahead of Greenwich and The Regent’s Park. After starting August with two wins, the Regents looked to be giving themselves a chance of retaining their championship but three successive losses to end the month have probably left them too far behind. Of the other teams, the Old Westminsters are fighting hard to try to earn a winning record but will not be winning the championship this year, while Clapham maintained their advantage over Kensington in the battle to avoid last place as both recorded two wins and three defeats in August.
