Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

40% of the runs obtained by the team, an exceptional proportion, even by the standards of schools cricket. His school cricket career ended by leading his house side, County, to both the house championship and victory over the rest of the school, though it was his cousin who got the plaudits for batting in the County victory. Maurice left school at Easter 1935, just after his sixteenth birthday. The school expected that he would remain for the summer term and play some cricket, but instead he went off to work for Dryad, then based in Churchgate in Leicester. Dryad were makers of stylish cane furniture that had benefited from the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement in the early years of the century. His employment by them arose not so much through an interest in art and design, but because their managing director was George Hackett, a Leicester Ivanhoe cricket club member who was later to serve on the committee of the county club. He was most generous when it came to supporting cricket. In 1930, he had given £500 to the county club to help them fit out the dressing rooms at the Aylestone Road ground, and as treasurer of the Ivanhoe for almost 30 years he had ensured that they did not overstretch themselves financially when acquiring the ground at Leicester Forest East after the Second World War. Precisely what Maurice did at Dryad is uncertain, but working in an organisation with a keen sportsman in charge had enormous benefits whenever he wanted time off to play in a game or attend a practice session. That he did not join the family business is also interesting. Maybe Percy did not want to employ his son in a junior capacity, but wanted him to learn about business somewhere else. His very early club cricket was played as a young teenager for Countesthorpe, and in that respect followed the route taken by many cricketers over the years – village second eleven as a young teenager, then the first eleven, before moving to the local ‘Town’ club. The Railway Hotel ground at Countesthorpe rose at one side to produce a natural grandstand. The village played in the South Leicestershire League that included teams from Hinckley and the villages between. Over the years this league produced a high proportion of the local players that played for Leicestershire; George Geary, Ewart Astill and Sammy Coe from the early days, and Nigel Briers, Nick Cook and Les Taylor from the more recent past. As a member of a Baptist family, Maurice might have been expected to play for the church side, which during the 1930s ran two teams in the Leicester- based Mutual Sunday School Cricket League. They played away games on parks in the city of Leicester, and home games on a field close to the centre of the village, but Countesthorpe were clearly the premier village club. In 1934, Countesthorpe had two teams in the league. The firsts were having a dreadful season in the first division, ultimately finishing bottom and suffering relegation. The second team ended up champions of the third division but were denied promotion because two teams from the same club could not play in the same division. The clubs playing in the division were Learning the game 15