Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

played in the selection of matches for the junior sides. The county, wherever possible and certainly before August, tried to play Second XI matches when there was not a first-team match. He played against Northamptonshire Second XI on 16 June, scoring 73, and in the following week found himself playing against the club cricketers of the Leicestershire Cricket Association, a match played over two evenings, separated by an afternoon match against Ratcliffe College. On Saturday, he played in another Les Berry benefit match, this time at Market Harborough, before another Second XI match against Nottinghamshire, then a long drive down to Kent, to play in the second game of the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week, a very special occasion indeed. The Leicestershire team stayed at the Swan Hotel in the Pantiles, with the ground itself in beautiful Nevill Park. Festival week at Tunbridge Wells included Kent’s match against neighbouring Sussex, usually a well-attended fixture. On the first day a military band played as the team set off for the ground and on Thursday evening there was a Cricket Week ‘Flannel Dance’. There was a sparse crowd at the start of the game, many not expecting play to start after a heavy overnight storm. Maurice came in with score on 45. He was almost caught and bowled first ball by Doug Wright, who was bowling superbly and troubled him a great deal. He and Armstrong put on 61 in not much more than an hour, before Armstrong was dismissed, and then on the stroke of lunch, Maurice was out, caught at slip by Arthur Fagg, when trying to drive Wright. In the second innings he batted with his captain, C.S.Dempster. The Leicester Mercury reported that he ‘quickly settled down to play confident cricket’. He showed ‘capital form’ and played cuts, off drives and hooks. ‘They added 114 for the fourth wicket in less than an hour. It then had an unfortunate ending; he was a little too impetuous and was run out. He had shown exceptional promise during his stay at the wicket and his last four scoring strokes were boundaries.’ Also watching was the doyen Kent left-hander, Frank Woolley, who wrote: ‘The boy Tompkin played a very good knock and he looks like making a very good batsman (if left alone). He is a natural player.’ Dempster set Kent the little matter of 475 to win, and Haydon Smith, with the most successful bowling performance of his career including match figures of 12 for 69, bowled them out for 87 and defeat by 387 runs. The only positive that Kent could take out of the game was that they could enjoy the dance without having to get up too early the following morning. It also meant a day at home for Maurice, and when he was there and fancied a bit of extra batting practice, he would just go round the corner from his home and play with the lads on Westfield Avenue who were just a few years younger. What better way to cultivate grass roots support? At this stage in the season – the end of June – Leicestershire had won four and drawn four of their eight games. Because counties played a different number of matches, their position in the table was calculated on average points per game. Their average at this point of the season was 7.00, leaving Leicestershire debut, 1938 and 1939 26