Mead holds many batting records, notably that of scoring the most runs in the County Championship and the fourth-highest total in all first-class matches.

C. B. Fry spotted Mead playing as a schoolboy at the Oval and encouraged him to become a professional; he joined the Surrey ground staff in 1902.

During his residence qualification period Mead worked in coaching naval trainees, and might have made his first-class debut at 17 for Players of the South against the Gentleman, but was vetoed by W G Grace who objected because of his age.

[1] After one match against the touring Australians when not qualified in 1905, Mead immediately became a regular with Hampshire, but faltered after a promising beginning including 109 against Yorkshire.

However, despite no longer being in the front rank of English batsmen, Mead was still feared for his great technical skill and reached a thousand runs every year until, at the age of forty-nine in 1936, he was not re-engaged by Hampshire.

In 1907, Mead signed for Southampton for one season to assist the club's reserve team as a useful inside-forward, but he had no intention of taking up football as a full-time occupation.

On 21 December 1907, he was at Fratton Park, Portsmouth for a reserve fixture when he was summoned to The Dell where the Saints had an emergency as both regular goalkeepers, Herbert Lock and Tom Burrows were unavailable through injury.