Maurice Read
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Born | Thames Ditton, Surrey, England | 9 February 1859|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 17 February 1929 Winchester, Hampshire, England | (aged 70)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right-arm fast-medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut (cap 36) | 28 August 1882 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 19 July 1893 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 10 May 2023 |
John Maurice Read (9 February 1859 – 17 February 1929) was an English professional
Born in 1859 in
Test debut and career
Read made his debut in the
In England's first innings, the local boy was cheered 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. There are copious examples in this match which serve to support Altham's affirmation that Read was "a wonderful fielder in the country" (i.e. outfield). He is frequently recorded in contemporary accounts of the game as chasing the ball down as fast as he could, and he certainly managed to bring to a halt plenty of potential Australian boundaries.
In the second innings, Read was one of the many victims of England captain Monkey Hornby's spectacular alteration of the batting order, promoted in front of the apparently nerveless
When he came back to Australia in 1886/87, Read was flabbergasted at the pickiness of the Australian public, and he wrote of it: "If you have a bit of bad luck and make nothing two or three times, you are not of much account in Australia, and out of the team you should go, even if you have scored excellently on occasions." In England, however, it was different. "There," he reckoned, "if you are a recognised player, half a dozen successive noughts will not exclude you from a team."
Read remained a regular selection for
Read and Lohmann
George Lohmann, for one, preferred watching Read (and even AE Stoddart) to
Read was sent along to South Africa with Lohmann in 1892 to be of assistance to the great bowler in his recuperation following a ghastly (but altogether foreseeable) physical collapse as a result of overbowling. The pair sailed from Southampton on Christmas Eve, and, in March 1893, when Lohmann was healthy enough to be left on his own, Read made his homecoming for the start of the new season. (Lohmann later broke down again, however, eventually dying in South Africa.)
Incidentally, another colleague of Read's who suffered the effects of being overbowled was Tom Richardson, a Surrey and Thames Ditton team-mate. Read was one of the first to forecast what would eventually happen to this great fast bowler, conjecturing ominously about the strenuous effects that the 1897/98 tour might have on Richardson's body. He was, of course, proven correct.
Career's end
After scoring 131 to help Surrey defeat
Read's uncle (by marriage)
References
- ^ "Notes". Cricketer. 1 (13): 3.
- ^ Maurice Read, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2023-05-10. (subscription required)