Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

For Maurice, his back pains had a disastrous effect on his form. He reached 50 only twice. The visit to Tunbridge Wells in June must have brought back fond memories of his first visit in 1938. His innings of 68 was a far cry from the carefree ebullience of his century partnership with Stewie Dempster. This time, he put on 105 for the third wicket with the only survivor from the team of that era, Gerry Lester, who never let the club down in over 30 years of valiant service. His only other county fifty came in the next match at Grace Road, against Nottinghamshire, once again an innings that lasted over two and a half hours. In the second innings, he was bowled first ball as the Leicester early order were swept away by an Australian rugby player, a left-arm fast bowler called Alan Walker, who took wickets with the first three balls of the Leicestershire innings. Maurice was injured in the next match against Sussex without batting, which Leicestershire managed to win, and his absence and poor run meant that he did not make double figures in July. August was not quite so bad, and against Yorkshire he put on 87 for the fifth wicket with Charles Palmer, as he scored a dogged 46, and again in the final home match of the season, a two-hour 32. By now though, he had relinquished the No.3 position, sometimes batting as low as six. On 22 August, the Leicestershire committee had their annual review of the playing staff, where they decided who was to be re engaged for the following summer. Was Maurice’s future discussed? Despite his lack of form, the dismissal of such a popular player was almost certainly not on the agenda. The two players not re-engaged were Gerald Smithson, who had experienced a better season than Maurice, and Freddie Foulds. Two more players, Brian Boshier and Robin Gardner, were to be re-engaged, provided Boshier undertook physical training and Gardner ‘generally livened up’. In fact Boshier always struggled with his fitness, though he played successfully for another eight years, and Gardner eventually ‘livened up’ enough to score a century against the 1961 Australians, was capped, and scarcely played for the county again – the Leicestershire committee at their enigmatic best. The evidence shows that Maurice would have been offered an unconditional contract for 1957. It would have needed more than that one difficult summer for that not to have been the case. Maybe it was the County who encouraged him to visit the specialist after the season was over, but there is no evidence even for this. At the end of the season, the leading players found their way once more to the three seaside festivals at Scarborough, Hastings and Torquay. Maurice and Vic Jackson were playing at Torquay for North v South, and very much the same players reorganised for a second match, an England XI v Commonwealth XI. Maurice took his wife and the two boys. Play was only possible on the first day, a Saturday, 1 September, and then only until teatime. By this stage Maurice had scored an unbeaten 64, and Final days 116