Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

100 importantly, so did the Supreme Court in Cape Town. It all made for a colourful and dramatic departure. The tug left the Docks-side at half-past nine taking passengers and visitors and all the English cricketers with the exception of Messrs W W Read and Edwin Ash to the ship. Messrs Read and Ash arrived later in a rowing boat, having been detained in town on some business connected with the finance in connection with the tour…Messrs Read and Ash, hearing they were to be arrested stayed in town later than the remainder of the team yesterday morning in order to place themselves at the disposal of the Sheriff, and on being informed that the only way they could be released from arrest and allowed to proceed by the Dunottar Castle would be to deposit in the hands of the Court sufficient to cover the amount claimed or security for the same. This was done and they were permitted to depart. But an action in the matter is to come on in the Supreme Court in a few weeks or months hence when the claim will it is said be disputed. 175 Bassano and Smith in their book on the tour say that searches through court archives for 1892 have failed to reveal any record of the case being brought before the courts and draw the conclusion that the parties settled their dispute privately. Not so. Not only in Hamlet’s time was the law’s delay something which had to be borne…The case eventually came to court in June of the following year, when the South African Sportsman summarised the verdict in the following scorecard. SINGLE WICKET MATCH Played at the Supreme Court, Cape Town on Tuesday June 7, 1893 Gentlemen of England W W Read c Sir H de Villiers b J D Logan 0 W L Murdoch run out 0 ‘Daddy’ Ash retired hurt 0 Mr Bridgette absent 0 ____ Total 0 South Africa 1891/92 175 Cape Times 25 March 1892