Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

113 gentleman, though clearly a man with a track record of business success and some technical expertise in India rubber which along with cane and whalebone was a major component of the handle of the ‘Magic’ Patent cricket bat, Cook’s flagship and heavily advertised product. Whether Walter had met Florence as a result of his involvement with Arthur Wells or vice versa is unclear, but the two men clearly formed a potentially strong business partnership. It is doubtful whether the Board of Directors actually met. The likelihood is that, possibly in return for an honorarium and a few free bats, they were agreeable to lending their names to an endorsement of a piece of equipment eulogised in the preface to the price list in the following terms. In directing the attention of the Cricketing Public to the following Price List of a few of the articles we manufacture and trade in, we may state that we purposefully refrain from the usual course of publishing testimonials in favour of our specialties, feeling sure that cricketers will attach more importance to the fact that our Patent “MAGIC” Bat has been found to possess sufficient merit to attract the attention and secure the patronage of some of England’s most eminent players, a few of whom comprise our Board of Directors. The fact that some of these gentlemen have previously testified to the good qualities of other patent bats (all of which they have now relinquished) conclusively proves that, as a weapon of cricketing warfare, the “MAGIC” is unequalled. Such testimony, we think, will be sufficient recommendation to all lovers of the National Game to try the “MAGIC” Bat, which we confidently predict will speedily supersede all other patents and drive IMITATIONS out of the market. 182 It didn’t of course, despite the endorsements and aggressive salesmanship. Apart from thirteen pages of advertising and price lists, there are nine pages on the Laws of Cricket (some of them still uncut in 125 years in the copy of this rare pamphlet held in the Lord’s Library!) plus a couple for the insertion of ‘Engagements’ and ‘Results’, and a quarter of this small publication is dedicated to what the title suggests, short hints on cricket, though mainly on batting with a bit on fielding and nothing on bowling. Some are timeless, some are dated, others a mixture of the two. 182 Short Hints on Cricket p9 Annals of Cricket and Short Hints on Cricket