Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Leicestershire were very much keeping an eye on his progress. On ‘Derby Day’, 2 June, the Club and Ground team, captained by the 61-year-old C.J.B.Wood, played Lutterworth at their picturesque, tree-lined ground. Maurice came in with the score standing at 15 for two. He batted slowly to start with, but rapidly gained confidence. He reached 99 with a boundary, before taking a single to bring up his century. He batted for no more than two hours, hitting a six and 13 fours. Perhaps surprisingly, the local press made little mention of this innings, being more concerned with the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and especially ‘Mrs Simpson’s’ wedding dress. On Friday, 4 June though, the Club and Ground were in action again, this time against the Gentlemen of Leicestershire at the county ground at Aylestone Road. Several on the Gentlemen’s team were closely associated with the county club, so it was an opportunity to impress. Flamson and Graham bundled the Gents out in just over an hour, and for the Club and Ground, Maurice batted for under two hours, scoring an unbeaten 90, sharing in an unbroken partnership of 193. Later on in the summer he played at Darley Dale, against Derbyshire seconds. The Derbyshire attack included Cliff Gladwin and Harold Pope, so were hardly a pushover, and scores of 28 and 13 not out were acceptable in the circumstances, though the batsman that took the eye was Laurie Thursting, who scored 73. That Maurice should play in just one of the eight county Second XI matches may at first sight seem surprising. The reason is perhaps quite mundane. Including the nursery staff there were as many 17 professionals on the payroll, to whom must be added the amateurs, many of them at university and available during July and August when the games were played. In addition, bowling was Leicestershire’s problem and the priority was to inject new blood into the ageing attack. He continued to play for both Ivanhoe and Nomads throughout the summer. He scored 65 for Nomads against Market Harborough, a game in which Laurie Thursting scored an unbeaten 49 for the opposition, to demonstrate that he was as good as the county player. Countesthorpe were having a good season in the South Leicestershire League and were challenging the neighbouring village of Blaby for the Second Division title. They desperately needed to win their match in late August at Enderby to clinch it. Maurice could scarcely be called a ‘ringer’ but he had certainly not played regularly for the village for several years. He opened the Countesthorpe innings and dominated the scoring from the start. When the score had reached 100 for five, he had scored 64. The innings closed at 150 for six. Did he score 36 of the remaining 50 runs? Was this his only century for his native village? Was his the sixth wicket that fell, a few tantalising runs short of his hundred? In any event, his batting was not sufficient to ensure victory. Why should his skipper declare at that point unless Maurice had scored a hundred or been dismissed? Sadly the Learning the game 18