Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

52 of 202 runs scored while he was at the wickets, he made 94 by perfect cricket. He hardly gave a fair chance, and seldom seemed in the least difficulty with the bowling. He was batting for about three hours and a half and hit eight 4’s two 3’s and fifteen 2’s. 95 England went on to win the match by an innings and 217 runs, Australia finding no answer to Lohmann and Briggs. As in 1884, Scotton had demonstrated his ability to ‘bat time’. He shared an opening partnership of 170 with Grace to which his contribution was 34 in 3 ¾ hours, including a period of 67 minutes when he failed to score at all. It was Scotton who was the inspiration behind Punch ’s parody of Tennyson. THE WAIL OF THE WEARY Block, block, block At the foot of thy wicket, O Scotton! And I would that my tongue could utter My boredom. You won’t put the pot on! O nice for the bowler, my boy, That each ball like a barn-door, you play; O, nice for yourself, I suppose, That you stick at the wickets all day. And the clock’s slow hands go on, And you still keep up your sticks; But oh for the lift of a smiting hand, And the sound of a swipe for six! Block, block, block At the foot of thy wickets, oh do! But one hour of Grace or Walter Read Were worth a week of you. 96 So, in his time Read became iconic in the sense of being symbolic of something greater, rather than in the twenty-first century sense when everything from an Olympic stadium to a plastic duck has become iconic. Sadly, Scotton was to take his own life in 1893 at the age of 37, but the bracketing of Grace and Read is significant, as is their pairing, batting against Australia in the painting by G.H.Barrable and R.Ponsonby Staples of an imaginary match at Lord’s attended Surrey and England 1881/87 95 Wisden 1887 p 47 96 Cricket 26 July 1886