Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Perhaps this year also represented the final chance for England selection. Touring teams for the longer tours traditionally selected seventeen players. The Ashes touring party of 1954/55 included Denis Compton and his dodgy knee. Len Hutton managed to secure batting cover for Compton by selecting Vic Wilson as the ‘eighteenth player’. As he was twelfth man in all of the five Tests, it is not hard to deduce that Hutton was really after his fielding rather than his batting ability, and as a county colleague, someone he knew really well. The fact remains that Maurice had lost out to a player with practically the same credentials as himself. Maurice took his role as senior pro seriously. On one occasion he admonished the youthful Rodney Pratt. Pratt first played for Leicestershire when only 16 years old, and was very much the ‘village lad’ and not experienced in the ways of county cricket. Opening the bowling his hair naturally became dishevelled, and when he returned to his fielding position on the boundary at the end of an over, he promptly took a comb out of his pocket to restore the parting. Maurice admonished him with ‘That’s not what we do when playing for Leicestershire.’ No hysterics, no shouting, nothing to make the young player feel humiliated, just being put straight in a quiet, calm way. The younger players on the staff thought the world of Maurice, remembers Fred Foulds, one of the ‘five little boys’ brought onto the staff by Charles Palmer when he became secretary-captain. For a start, Maurice was one of the indoor school coaches. The other reason was that Maurice played good cop to the much stricter disciplinarians, Gerry Lester and Jack Walsh, who were also involved with young player development. Above all he was a gentleman. Terry Spencer remembers that he never drank alcohol – Chris Tompkin remembers him drinking milk as his favourite evening refreshment – or used strong language on or off the field. He was very much a hero for the young players, someone to admire. When Terry first played county cricket, Maurice was very much the person that he looked up to. As a young bowler, he found the help and guidance invaluable. At the arrival of each new batsman, there was always a comment: ‘Ah, so and so’s coming in now, he’s a good driver, or he’s a good onside player. Don’t bowl short at this one, he’s a great hooker.’ The advice was quietly given without any great show. He would do the same for all the young players. Sledging was out of the question for Maurice, and though other players of the era did this, it was not taken to excess. The delivery that beat the outside edge was not generally met with a long stare from the bowler, and the umpire’s decisions were not usually questioned. Maurice was certainly a walker, but then the majority of batsmen did this as well, though one or two did not. There was much camaraderie. Perhaps that a drink or two was shared at the end of each day’s play helped, as did the fact that most remembered the war, and playing cricket was so much better than the traumas suffered Senior Professional 102