Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

53 inter alios by the Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra and Lily Langtree. The following extract from Cricket ’s jocular advice to a school captain suggests that Read and in this case Shrewsbury are clearly benchmarks or rôle models for the younger generation. You will find that an acquaintance with old cricketing authors will not be unserviceable. e g if your point refuses to stand less than 12 or 14 yards from the wicket because W W Read and Shrewsbury do not, you may, with effect, remind (or inform) him that Nyren states the proper distance to be 3 yards. 97 He was also bracketed with W G in a piece in Cricket , ‘The Influence of Cricket on the Lives of Men’ which oozes with Victorian sanctimoniousness. Oh! that first century. Can W G remember his? or Walter Read his? perhaps not, lost among the multitude; but still I fancy they can. 98 There can be no serious doubt about W.G.Grace’s supremacy as a batsman in the nineteenth century. Whatever may be said about his intimidation of umpires and his gamesmanship, his record of first-class cricket spanning five decades remains unchallenged and unchallengeable. Yet there were times in the 80s when in statistical terms at any rate Read certainly ran him close and Surrey and England 1881/87 97 Cricket 26 January 1893 98 Cricket 25 November 1886 Grace and Read batting against Australia in the painting by G.H.Barrable and R.Ponsonby Staples of an imaginary match at Lord’s attended inter alios by the Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra and Lily Langtree. [MCC, Bridgeman Art Library and the executors of the estate of the late Hazel Radcliffe-Dolling].