{{short description|New Zealand cricketer (1886–1974)}} {{for|the Canadian ice hockey player|Reg Reid}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2014}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Reg Read | image = Reg Read.jpg | caption = | fullname = Reginald John Read | birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|6|8|df=yes}} | birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|3|1|1886|6|8|df=yes}} | death_place = Mount Pleasant, Christchurch, New Zealand | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | club1 = Canterbury | year1 = {{nowrap|1904/05–1937/38}} | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 48 | runs1 = 1,034 | bat avg1 = 13.78 | 100s/50s1 = 0/1 | top score1 = 50 | deliveries1 = 11,343 | wickets1 = 188 | bowl avg1 = 26.56 | fivefor1 = 11 | tenfor1 = 1 | best bowling1 = 7/24 | catches/stumpings1= 30/– | source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22720/22720.html CricketArchive | date = 2 April | year = 2014 }} '''Reginald John Read''' (8 June 1886 – 1 March 1974) was a New Zealand medium-pace bowler who played first-class cricket for Canterbury from 1904–05 to 1937–38.
==Playing career== Read made his first-class debut in Christchurch against the Australians at the age of 18 in February 1905, batting at number 11 and bowling only one over.<ref name=firstFC/> He played two matches in 1906–07 but was given only seven overs altogether, and did not take a wicket.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22720/f_Bowling_by_Season.html Reg Read bowling by season]</ref>
He had to wait another 11 years for his next match. In 1917–18, for his Canterbury club Lancaster Park, he took 92 wickets in eight matches for 781 runs with his accurate medium-pace bowling,<ref name=RTB>Dick Brittenden, ''New Zealand Cricketers'', A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, pp. 140–42.</ref> and he returned to the Canterbury side at the age of 31. The Plunket Shield was still in its wartime hiatus, but there were several inter-provincial friendly matches. In his first match, against Otago, he took 3 for 58 and 2 for 35 (bowling throughout the innings) and made 18 and 34 not out to help Canterbury to victory.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/9/9499.html Canterbury v Otago 1917–18]</ref> In the next match he bowled through the entire Wellington first innings, taking 4 for 43 off 23 overs.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/9/9500.html Canterbury v Wellington 1917–18]</ref> He remained in the Canterbury side, opening the bowling for more than ten years until his early forties.
In 1920–21, in what proved to be Southland's second-last first-class match, Read took 7 for 35 and 7 for 24, bowling unchanged throughout the two innings.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/10/10021.html Southland v Canterbury 1920–21]</ref> In 1922–23, when Canterbury won the Plunket Shield, he was the leading bowler in the competition, with 20 wickets at an average of 18.40.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1922-23/Bowling_by_Average.html Bowling in Plunket Shield 1922–23]</ref> In the victory over Auckland that season he made his highest score, 50, then took 5 for 53 and 3 for 81.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/10/10669.html Canterbury v Auckland 1922–23]</ref>
No one in the 1926–27 Plunket Shield season bettered Read's tally of 19 wickets,<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1926-27/Bowling_by_Average.html Bowling in Plunket Shield 1926–27]</ref> but at 40 he was overlooked when the team for New Zealand's first tour of England in 1927 was chosen. He was selected to play for New Zealand against the touring Australians in 1927–28, but took only two wickets in the two matches. By the time New Zealand played Test cricket for the first time, in 1930, he was 43 and no longer playing for Canterbury.
Read kept playing for Lancaster Park, on his way to a tally of around 1800 wickets in club cricket.<ref name=RTB/> Without him, Canterbury won the Plunket Shield in 1934–35, but then did not win a match in 1935–36 or 1936–37, and for the 1937–38 season they brought Read back to open the bowling again at the age of 51. He took only four wickets in the three matches, and Canterbury finished last without a victory again, but his stamina was undiminished. In his final match he bowled 33.1 eight-ball overs, taking 1 for 102 as Auckland amassed 590.<ref name=lastFC>{{cite web |title=Auckland v Canterbury 1937-38 |url=http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1930S/1937-38/NZ_LOCAL/PS/AUCK_CANT_PS_07-10JAN1938.html |website=Cricinfo |access-date=23 August 2023}}</ref>
In his first first-class match Read had played against Syd Gregory, whose first-class career began in 1890;<ref name=firstFC>{{cite web |title=Canterbury v Australians 1904-05 |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/6/6647.html |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=8 April 2026}}</ref> in his last match he played against Merv Wallace, whose first-class career ended in 1961.<ref name=lastFC/> Dick Brittenden said of Read: "From a run of about eight yards, he bowled medium-paced out-swingers and off-breaks ... his mastery of length and direction was absolute ... Read was one of the fittest cricketers ever to put on a pad."<ref name=RTB/>
==Personal life== Read worked as a foreman in a Christchurch foundry.<ref name=RTB/> Later he retired to live in Kaikōura.<ref name=RTB/> He and his wife Violet had one son. She died in 1947, aged 59;<ref>{{cite journal |title=Deaths |journal=Press |date=14 March 1947 |page=1 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19470314.2.2.2}}</ref> he died in his sleep at his nursing home in the Christchurch suburb of Mount Pleasant in March 1974, aged 87.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Deaths |journal=Press |date=2 March 1974 |page=47 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19740302.2.223.4}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Cricinfo|id=38286}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Reg}} Category:1886 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Canterbury cricketers Category:New Zealand cricketers Category:Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Category:Cricketers from Auckland