Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

79 The scorecard read: W Barnes c Stoddart b Read 17 W Attewell b Read 0 F Dixon b Read 0 3-51, 4-51, 5-51 140 In his Introduction to Annals of Cricket , John Shuter gives the hat-trick victims as Dixon, Barnes and Gunn. 141 Read did take Gunn’s wicket, but the following day for 40, after he had been 26 not out overnight in a total of 60-6. So, given the fall of the three wickets at 51, Gunn could not have been part of the hat-trick. In the second innings Read made 52, increasing his contribution to a convincing 115 run win by his team. 1892 After three relatively lean years the South African tour of the previous winter seems to have led to an improvement in form and 1892 saw something of a revival in Read’s batting fortunes. After a fairly ordinary start to the season, he moved up the order, from his regular position at No.4 to opening the innings with Bobby Abel. The experiment was an instant success, as indeed it had been five years earlier when, after a similar run of poor form, he had opened against Kent and made a century. His 196 not out against Sussex was, after two seasons without a century, one of three and his highest since his near-record 338 against Oxford University in 1888. It followed upon 112 against the same opponents a week earlier and each contributed to innings victories over Surrey’s south coast neighbours. Though the wicket at first was a trifle slow, Mr Read and Abel, who began the batting for Surrey, did not find it difficult. On the contrary, they both scored freely and the score which at luncheon time was 118, was raised to 156 before Abel was out. The two batsmen had been together two hours and ten minutes and Abel’s share of the total was 61…. Altogether he had been batting just under three hours and his 112 was altogether worthy of his best days. 142 Then, a week later, he ‘continued to bat in admirable style and 140 Cricket Archive 141 So does Read – almost certainly Shuter’s source – in an interview in Cricket 23 May 1895 142 Cricket 21 July 1892 Surrey and England 1888/97