[6] A week earlier, on 29 August 1726, Kent had played a combined London and Surrey team on Kennington Common for 25 guineas but the result is unknown.
[7] He was very successful in 1728 when the report of a game in August said of Kent's latest victory: "the third time this summer that the Kentish men have been too expert for those of Sussex".
[8] But Stead was less successful on 28 August the following year when Gage's XI defeated Kent at Penshurst Park, apparently by an innings.
[12][13][14] The last definite mentions of Stead in a cricket context are in the 1730s concerning his presence at certain matches, although Kent remained prominent in the records for the last five years of his life.
He inherited the family estate when he was still only eighteen and became a compulsive gambler, being a keen player of dice and cards in addition to cricket, but John Marshall's summary is that "he is said to have lost heavily at all".
[19] Stead was, nevertheless, a "graceful loser" and Major asserts that "his nonchalance" gained him powerful friends including Frederick, Prince of Wales.