Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

the boundary for four, his fifteenth of the innings. He had batted just three hours. This story, recounted in Douglas Miller’s biography of Palmer, is supported by the Leicester Mercury account and the report in Wisden , which stated that Tompkin hit 16 fours, but makes no mention of any sixes. However, the Leicester Evening News stated that ‘Tompkin reached three figures by hitting a mighty straight six off Marlar,’ and there is a photograph at Grace Road with the same caption! After reaching his century, he hit one more boundary before being caught at mid on by Gamini Goonesena off John Warr. The Times thought him ‘an imposing figure when under way’ and added that he had ‘a fine eye’. He was the first Leicestershire batsman since John King in 1904 to score a century for the Players in the Lord’s match, and the last. He was also the only professional without a Test cap to score a century in this fixture since Albert Knight who did so in 1903. It was partly as a result of his century that Knight was selected to tour with MCC in Australia where he then played his three Test matches, and he coincidentally also played for Leicestershire. Before Tompkin, you have to go back to pre-Test days and 1866, before you discover, in Richard Daft, a Players’ centurion at Lord’s who never played for his country. Palmer was rewarded by scoring a century himself when he batted, not surprisingly the only occasion that Leicestershire cricketers scored centuries for both sides in the same Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s. When this game was over, Maurice was standing fourth in the national averages, behind Peter May, Tom Dollery and Doug Insole, and third in run aggregate. Leicestershire had a successful end to the season, winning four of their last five games. A three-hour 90 from Maurice on a crumbling wicket enabled a demanding target to be set against Sussex, who were defenceless against Vic Jackson; and a quick-fire 32 in twenty minutes set up the win against Essex. The Glamorgan match at Cardiff saw a ten-wicket win, and was memorable for one young Glamorgan batsman, the future captain of England and President of the MCC, Tony Lewis. His description of his first match speaks volumes for the way in which first-class cricket was played at this time: ‘My first match in first-class cricket was against Leicestershire. Allan Watkins told me how to play Jack Walsh: “First try to read the wrist spinner from the hand. Second, watch the ball revolve in the air and pick up the spin at that stage. Thirdly, if you are still uncertain, settle for playing the spin off the pitch, having first expected every ball to turn into the stumps.” ‘You may look a fool’, he concluded, ‘but you’re still there next ball.’ In the first innings, he departed, lbw b Walsh, for nought. Lewis resumed the story to describe his second first-class innings: ‘Could I get off the mark in first-class cricket? Walsh bowled; forward I plunged. The ball struck the solid bat full toss, I was so far down, and went past a Senior Professional 105