Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

99 Cricket summed up the tour as follows: Though the financial result may not have been so satisfactory as its promoters could have wished, the tour of the English team to South Africa was, at all events, a complete success from a cricket standpoint. Of twenty matches thirteen were won and seven drawn. On paper the team was strong enough to give a good account of itself against any combination South Africa could produce, so that a defeat was hardly to be expected. Still, considering the difference of climate, the long and difficult journeys which had to be made in some cases, and the lavish hospitality they received everywhere, Mr Read and his comrades have reason to be more than satisfied with their cricket record…. The chief features of the tour were the incredibly fine bowl- ing of Mr Ferris, and the consistent scores of Chatterton. With Martin, J.T.Hearne and Pougher, not to mention Alec Hearne in the team, there was plenty of variety in the attack, and Mr Ferris’ figures, even allowing that the average of South African batting is not particularly high, were throughout the most noteworthy. Chatterton was essentially the safe man of the team as a run-getter. That he finally upheld his reputation as a thoroughly reliable batsman goes without saying. 174 However successful the tour might have been in terms of results, there can be no doubt that financially and legally, it verged on disaster. It was always likely to be the case. The preceding rugby tour had not helped and the imbalance in quality between the English team and their hosts hardly made for competitive cricket. Although stronger than Major Warton’s 1888/89 team, it was scarcely England’s strongest. Lord Sheffield and W.G.Grace led a simultaneous tour to Australia and Lord Hawke had a team in the United States. George Ayres and Edwin Leaney had not played first-class cricket; the latter was never to do so. £750 had been advanced for the tour by James Logan, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and passionate supporter of cricket, though, as is usually the case with sponsors, his motives were not 100% altruistic. It was unclear as to whether the advance was a grant towards the expenses of the tour or a loan to be repaid from the proceeds, which in the end were insufficient. Read and Ash took the former view; Logan the latter – and, more South Africa 1891/92 174 Cricket 14 April 1892