Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

42 Assistant Secretary... You’re ‘aving a larf successful to the extent it allowed Read to concentrate full time on his cricket and be in all but name a professional. Having been prevented by his school duties, he now was a regular feature of the matches. He was invited for the first time since then to play for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1882, making 21 and 5 in a match won by the professionals by 87 runs, their first victory at the Oval in this long-standing fixture since 1865 – a result seen in some quarters as being symptomatic of a shift in the balance of power. Amateur cricket is beginning to suffer appreciably. It remains to be seen how correct our estimate is, but at the present time it seems as if the relative positions enjoyed by the Amateur and Professional traditions are about to undergo a change. 73 73 Cricket 6 July 1882 Assistant Secretary and cricketer - as seen by The Cricket Field’s cartoonist at the time of Read’s benefit in 1895.