Maurice Read
Maurice Read
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right arm fast-medium (RFM) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Maurice Read (1859 – 17 February 1929 in Winchester, Hampshire) was an English professional cricketer. Wrote Harry Altham of him in that truly magisterial work, A History of Cricket, "Maurice Read had been recognised as a dashing player up to Test Match form, to say nothing of being a wonderful fielder in the country." A hard-hitting and, according to Lord Hawke, "magnificent batsman who never had pretensions to be even a moderate change bowler", Read did little trundling except in 1883, when he claimed 27 first-class wickets including his career best of 6–41 against Kent.
Read joined his local Thames Ditton Cricket Club in 1879, made his first-class debut for Surrey County Cricket Club in 1880, and played regularly for his county for fifteen years. His most productive year was 1886, when he scored 1,364 runs at an average of 34.97, including two centuries and seven fifties. He was also extremely productive in the first half of 1889, and was recognised by being named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890, but his season was affected later in the year by a bad finger injury.
Born 9 February 1859 in Thames Ditton, Surrey, Read made his debut in the Oval (his home ground) Test Match against Australia in 1882, the match famous for bringing about the Ashes. According to the Manchester Guardian, Read's selection "was admittedly something of an experiment. He has played two or three lucky innings lately, but these do not make a cricketer any more than two or three swallows make a summer." A week or so prior the Test, however, Read had shared in a 158-run partnership against the tourists with fellow professional and England player Billy Barnes. Read finished on 130 and, like most of his team-mates, went into the match in good form.
In England's first innings, the local boy was cheered affectionately all the way to the middle by an avid Oval crowd. Fred Spofforth, however, soon walloped the hero three excruciating blows—one in the ribs, another on the knee and one more on the elbow. Read was compelled to hold up the game on two of these occasions to take time to convalesce, and it was, by all reports, an exceptionally valiant knock. Read finished unbeaten on nineteen, the second best score of the innings, and the masses cheered him all the way back to the pavilion just as they had cheered him from it; indeed, they it patently apparent right through this game that he was an authentic darling of the people.
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