Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

the crowds as the Bank Holiday weekend that preceded it, a gate of approaching £1,000 was certainly a possibility and a significant boost to the fund. By Saturday, the fund had risen to £1,400, and Maurice was optimistic that a sum close to four figures would result from gate receipts and donations at the match. Overnight rain had delayed the start, but the morning was fine. The umpires were planning to inspect at 3 pm, but just before that time, a deluge flooded the ground inside two minutes. There was never any real prospect of play starting in the rest of the match. The costs of the match were covered by insurance, but not the potential revenue. In the absence of any cricket, the local paper made a great deal of the financial loss to a popular player. Charles Palmer was forced to make one of his more evasive announcements, arising from his dual role as club secretary (minimising costs and maximising income) and captain (supporting his most popular player) that the committee would consider what could be done to help the situation. In fact the club ended up paying the insurance premium, something they repeated the following year for Jack Walsh. It was their refusal to do the same for Vic Jackson that contributed to his departure during the nightmare conclusion to the 1956 season. Palmer also suggested that would-be spectators might still want to contribute what they would have paid to the fund, and that they should send donations in an envelope marked for his attention. As if to mock the fate of the benefit match, a Sunday match was arranged at the Leicester Nomads’ ground at Dog and Gun Lane in Whetstone. This was deemed a roaring success. Over 3,000 people attended, the largest crowd ever seen on the ground, and £60 was raised. The Nomads’ president, T.W.Burrell, entertained both teams to lunch. Keeping wicket for them was Tommy Sidwell; now aged 66, he had kept wicket for Leicestershire over forty years before, and was a member of the Nomads when Maurice played for them in the 1930s. From a playing point of view it was not quite so successful. Leicestershire scored 180, with Maurice Hallam making 91, and Jack Walsh 59. The Nomads were bundled out for 71; Maurice had his middle stump sent flying for just a single by Jeff Goodwin, and M.J.K.Smith, who came from the neighbouring village of Broughton Astley, departed to a brilliant catch for nine. Mike Turner ensured that the innings did not last long by taking four wickets for four runs. Beforehand, the organisers had hoped that two or three of the Lancashire team would play, perhaps even Cyril Washbrook and Brian Statham, but in the end, neither did so. The benefit committee were getting desperate. They had even arranged for the cricket match against Leicester City’s footballers, postponed from a wet Sunday at the end of July, to be played at City’s sports ground off Melton Road in the evening of the scheduled third day of the Lancashire championship match. Sadly, though the Mercury bravely stated in its final edition that the match was ‘still on’, there was frustration when a cloudburst washed out any chance of play just as the game should have Senior Professional 98