Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

45 Once again, Read had led Surrey’s batting, albeit with a lower average than the previous year. It was not his greatest season, 882 runs at 25.94. In batting Mr. W W Read again played in all the matches, and again appears at the head of the list in all three important columns, but not with so good an average as in the previous year. 79 1883 Read’s form in Australia continued into the domestic season of 1883 as he moved seamlessly between international and club cricket, his 145 for Reigate Priory against Incogniti being preceded by 168 for Surrey against Hampshire on a re-laid and apparently batsman-friendly pitch at The Oval when the home side, at one stage scoring 300+ in three hours, reached 650, at the time the highest team total in first-class cricket in England. He led the first- class averages for most of the season and ended with 1573 runs at 47.66 Demonstrating his all-round versatility and his above-average competence as a wicket-keeper, he stepped into the breach against Leicestershire at Grace Road in May. Already captain of the side, he had a stumping and scored the only half- century of the match, but Surrey still lost a low scoring encounter by seven runs. The 1884 Test Matches 1884 for Surrey and Read was a modest season for both Surrey and its Assistant Secretary. It was in international cricket that season that he was to make his most memorable contribution. In looking ahead to the international season, Cricket could not avoid also looking back to events two years earlier. A reference to the discreditable defeat of the picked Eleven of England at The Oval in 1882 will convince any lover of sport of what our humiliation would be should Australia inflict on us a repetition of the disaster of two years ago. 80 Anglo-Australian Test Matches at The Oval (formerly the Kennington Oval and in more recent times, the Foster’s Oval, AMP Oval, Brit Oval, Kia Oval or whatever sponsor happens to be Surrey and England 1881/87 79 Wisden 1883 p 115 80 Cricket 27 March 1884