Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

80 though unlucky enough to miss his second hundred by four, carried out his bat.’ 143 A match-winning 75 and 32 against Yorkshire followed, as inevitably did the poetry. I wish to direct CRICKET- readers’ attention To a three-figure score We can hardly ignore – To the rhyme-slinger’s mind it’s well worthy of mention. . . . . . . . . . As witness this week on the Kennington ground, Where proof of his prowess the Sussex men found, When “W.W.” kept up his sticks Till he’d notched up a nice hundred and ninety-six, And might have made more, For he has such a way with him, But the innings was o’er – There were none left to stay with him Which seems to suggest that the Reigate crack To his old time form is coming back. The doggerel goes on to suggest, however, that although 196 not out is a nice little average improver, it may not count, as MCC may well decide retrospectively that Sussex is a second-class county, a cynical reference to the ongoing debate within and around MCC as to whether the two Surrey-Scotland matches that year should be granted first-class status. Eventually, they were not, doubtless a correct decision in the light of Surrey’s win by an innings and 247 runs, but detrimental to WW’s average, as he had an impressive 156 in Edinburgh against an unchallenging Scottish attack. Baldwin and Mr Read put on 69 for the first wicket and as the majority of the eleven scored well against the modest bowling of Scotland, the total reached the high figure of 391. The great feature of the innings was the brilliant display of Mr Read, an innings of three hours and a quarter, with only one real mistake and that in the long field when he had made 109. In the early part of his innings he played with care but when he had got set he hit all round in his very best style and in the last hour and a half scored 95 of his runs. 143 Cricket 28 July 1892 Surrey and England 1888/97