Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

84 It was all to no avail. Surrey lost by 29 runs. With Lohmann absent in South Africa afflicted by the early stages of tuberculosis and seeking an improvement in his health, it was a poor season for Surrey. They slipped to fifth place in the Championship. In representative cricket, however, Read played a large part in the Gentlemen v Players at Lord’s. Though eight of the eleven got double figures the bulk of the scoring was done by the two Surrey cricketers, W W Read and Wells. The former has rarely been seen to better advantage, and his 79 was an innings in every way up to his best standard. 151 For England too, he still had something to offer. It was long before central contracts were thought of, and teams dubbed ‘England’, ‘Australia’ and ‘South Africa’ were often dependent on players being released by their counties, states or provinces. At themeeting of county secretaries in December 1892, there was an agreement that ‘England’ should take priority. It was no more than a gentlemen’s agreement, however, and in no way legally enforceable, as convincingly demonstrated by Yorkshire when Wainwright was withheld from the Oval Test team of 1893. He was replaced by Flowers but when the latter was taken ill on the first morning of the match, WW was on hand to fill the vacancy and prolong an international career which he must have thought was already over. He was one of six England batsmen to score more than fifty – and it was enough to give him another match at Old Trafford before the final curtain fell on his Test match appearances. The Oval Test was the Benefit Match for Maurice Read. Walter and he shared a surname and on occasions, partnerships, but although one ill-informed journalist had assumed they were brothers, they were not related. Maurice must have been pretty satisfied with the outcome. The Australians took half the gate, but attendances of 12,720 on the first day, 13,061 on the second and 2,471 on the third as England completed an innings victory plus a large subscription list bagged him an above average £ 1,200. The Old Trafford match was drawn to give England a 1-0 series victory. They never looked like losing the match and may well have won it, had it not been for some end of second innings 151 Cricket 13 July 1893 Surrey and England 1888/97