Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Maurice was a major contributor to the victory over Middlesex. Chasing 228 in 225 minutes, Maurice Hallam got the innings off to a rapid start, with fifty up in 39 minutes, when the first wicket fell. The partnership of the two Maurices continued apace until a break for rain of 50 minutes made conditions substantially harder. Hallam departed, bowled by Alan Moss, but Tompkin continued, unbeaten on 87 when Gerry Smithson hit the winning runs, just six minutes from time. Glamorgan were next, at sunny but cold Loughborough, and Charles Palmer’s captaincy was at its best. He declared the Leicestershire innings twice, and in the Leicestershire second innings of 151, Maurice scored 80, with the next highest scorer Gerry Lester with 26, which left Glamorgan requiring 286 in 320 minutes on the final day, a tough task that they only narrowly failed to achieve. On this occasion, it was the new generation of bowlers, Terry Spencer and Jeff Goodwin, who broke the back of the Glamorgan batting, though Charles Palmer was still needed, and a victory margin of just 21 runs was secured. In 1955, the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s still attracted a large amount of interest. Sir Pelham Warner, writing in The Cricketer , expressed concern that the fixtures in July were becoming crowded, and even suggested that he would prefer the First Test match to be brought forward a week, and the final Test moved back a week to 20 August, to avoid availability problems for this traditional fixture. As it transpired, there were team selection problems for the game, with six members of the England team dropping out at various stages, including five the day before. The Old Trafford Test, which England had lost to South Africa, had ended only the day before, and Maurice was drafted in to replace Denis Compton. The failure of England’s opening batsmen in the Test had fuelled speculation that they might be replaced, as indeed they were, but of those appearing at Lord’s it was Doug Insole and Willie Watson who got the opportunity. Watson only lasted ten minutes for the Players before departing lbw to ‘Pom Pom’ Fellows-Smith; Maurice replaced him. He started carefully, but he straight-drove Insole brilliantly, from which can be deduced that the Gentlemen’s attack was badly missing Trevor Bailey. Maurice reached his 50 on the stroke of lunch, which was taken at 112 for two. The crowd had grown during the morning, and was now approaching 10,000, and they enjoyed the batting of Maurice and Jim Parks, who ‘in grilling heat’ put on 123 at well over a run a minute. As Maurice entered the nineties, Doug Insole put Charles Palmer on to bowl. Charles remembered the dilemma he was faced with. Maurice had not always batted successfully in his big matches at Lord’s, and he was naturally anxious that he made no mistake this time. As he passed Maurice between overs, Charles muttered to him, ‘third ball, next over’. He duly bowled a juicy half-volley, Maurice’s eyes visibly widened at the offering and he almost holed out, but fortunately it evaded the fielder and raced to 104 Senior Professional