Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Acknowledgements I was fortunate that Maurice’s sons, Chris and Nick, made available to me a scrapbook, largely maintained by Maurice’s father Percy, together with a large number of pictures, many of which are reproduced in this book. In their turn, Chris and Nick have both asked me to thank all those who gave so generously in their father’s name in 1956 at such a difficult time for them. Without this help and support they recognize that they would undoubtedly not have had such a good start in life. My thanks to the dozens of people who have helped me, especially his sons Chris and Nick, as well as the multitude of people who have helped me by sharing reminiscences. I have spoken to Mike Smith, Terry Spencer, Rodney Pratt, Mike Turner and Fred Foulds, who all played county cricket with him; Alfred Oldershaw and Philip Snow, who were at school and played football and cricket with him; Dick Gilliver, the son of his first headmaster, Harry Gilliver; Ian Riddington, the son of his county colleague; several members of the Countesthorpe Cricket Club who played against Maurice in the 1954 benefit match; and Antony Littlewood, who so clearly remembered meeting Maurice and witnessed his sole first-class wicket. For their various parts in the production of the book, my thanks go to David Jeater, its editor; Pete Griffiths, who has overseen the production process and attended to the detail of typesetting; to Roger Mann for his help with pictures; and to Gerald Hudd and John Ward who have undertaken the proofreading. R.H. 124