Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

started. Even so, 250 spectators had paid in total £5, in sixpences and threepences, to watch, although a sum of almost £50 might have been expected. The Gloucestershire match, in the third week of August, suffered the same fate as the benefit game, and the fixture at Edgbaston lasted only 85 minutes, play taking place in two periods on two days. Several other local benefit games were cancelled as well, and with them chances of his benefit consolidating his finances were rapidly disappearing down the drains of the cricket grounds in Leicestershire. In the last week of August, against Derbyshire, he scored a monumental 94, which lasted 380 minutes, his longest first-class innings. It was therefore a most untypical innings, but he was playing according to the needs of his side against two of the finest opening bowlers of the time in Cliff Gladwin and Les Jackson. Even this contained some sparks of aggression. He posted Leicestershire’s century with a six off Derek Morgan, after almost four hours batting, but it was above all else an innings of grit and determination. In the final match of the season, a run-a-minute 49 enabled a declaration and a win against Kent, thanks to fine bowling by Vic Jackson. It had been, in every way, an extraordinary season. Leicestershire’s other two wins were in the away match against Kent (which clashed with the MCC v Pakistanis match at Lord’s) and against Essex, where he ‘chipped in’ with 22 in half an hour, which helped but was not fundamental to the success. Two pairs, a 99 and a 94 can only have added to the frustration. 100 Senior Professional The England XI v Commonwealth XI at Hastings, 1954. Back row (l to r): D.Kenyon, G.A.R.Lock, N.H.Rogers, A.J.Watkins, J.C.Laker, D.Shackleton. Front row: M.Tompkin, D.B.Carr (capt), R.T.Spooner (wk), D.Barrick, P.J.Loader. It has not been possible to identify the twelfth man, top right.