[3] In this 1960 season, he made his highest first-class score, 190 against Glamorgan at Bath, when he also put on 300 for the third wicket with Peter Wight, then a Somerset county record.
[4] In the match against Cambridge University at Taunton in 1960, Atkinson and Roy Virgin put on 172 and 112 for the first wicket in the two Somerset innings, and Cambridge University's opening pair of Roger Prideaux and Tony Lewis responded with first-wicket partnerships of 198 and 137: this is the first time all four innings of a first-class match have started with three-figure opening partnerships.
And in 1962, he was picked for the MCC match against the Pakistan touring team, regarded as the most important fixture outside the Test series in the English season.
He was less affected than his previous opening partner, Brian Roe, and also less than Somerset's leading run-scorer of the past 10 years, Peter Wight, both of whom lost their places in the team through lack of form.
"Atkinson was sometimes criticised for being over cautious and slow—only ten runs in an hour on a batsman's wicket at Weston-super-Mare—but the county would have been badly off without his dogged defence and imperturbability," said Wisden.
But 1966 saw a further decline in his average to just 24, and at the end of the season he rejected the terms of the contract that was on offer and left to join Lancashire on special registration for 1967.
In 1969, the arrival of Clive Lloyd meant more competition for batting places at Lancashire, and the county, under the captaincy of Jack Bond, embarked on a policy of concentrating on success in one-day cricket, where Atkinson's slow scoring and fielding limitations were shown up by a group of new and younger players.
After his cricket career ended, Atkinson worked as the secretary of Salford rugby league club for several years, then managed the sports grounds at Manchester University.