Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

LIVES IN CRICKET Walter Read A Class Act KEITH BOOTH ACS PUBLICATIONS Walter Read was one of the leading batsmen of his generation. There can be few who would dispute W.G.Grace’s claim to the top spot and Arthur Shrewsbury and Walter Read would both have support for second place, but few would disagree that WW was the second amateur. Amateur? One who was paid more than most of his contemporaries plus bonuses, extra for significant performances and was showered with expensive gifts for his wedding and other occasions. Well, yes; because he was paid as Assistant Secretary, not for playing cricket - and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. The amateur-professional divide was not only or even mainly about money; it was about Victorian social class, rigid and significant, but containing opportunities for self-improvement, epitomised in the educationally conscious small town of Reigate where Read lived, and until he became involved full-time in cricket, worked for most of his life. Marrying into a family of self-made wealth, he knew which dressing room, which pavilion gate and which hotels he favoured and had no doubt of the side of the patrician-plebeian divide he and his family had earned the right to be. £12.00