Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

71 Owing to a severe attack of neuralgia, Mr W W Read was not in form and his ill success at the outset was the source of considerable disappointment to his many friends at home. As time advanced though, he settled down into quite his best style….. Three of the scores of a hundred made by the team were from his bat, and it is curious that he should have scored one in each of the three capitals of the Australian colonies, to wit, at Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. It is eminently satis- factory to report that this great English batsman fully upheld his high reputation during the winter. His fine average…. in representative matches is to be hoped an augury of an equally brilliant record for Surrey during the approaching English sea- son. 129 A decade later Cricket pointed out that Read was among a very small group of five amateurs who had made two trips to Australia. The others were W.G.Grace, G.F.Vernon, H.Philipson and A.C. MacLaren. Professionals on the other hand had made many more. Johnny Briggs was about to pay his sixth visit. 129 Cricket 26 April 1888 Australia 1882/83 and 1887/88