Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

This may sound as though Maurice was being very hard with his employer, but maybe the reality of the situation was revealed at the meeting on 15 March. The minutes state that ‘the committee interviewed Tompkin’s father’. Percy Tompkin, who was always known to be a tough wage negotiator when dealing with the demands of the workers at his hosiery factory, was now having the opportunity to reverse the roles and extract what he could for his son. They agreed on £2 a week staff pay for 52 weeks, and £4 match pay, giving him a predicted income of £212 for the season. Five months negotiation had earned him an extra £17. This therefore elevated him to ‘Senior Staff’ status, and on a slightly higher rate of pay than that of the most recently capped player, George Dawkes. * * * * * Maurice’s second season with the county first team, 1939, was difficult. The probability of war had started to affect day-to-day life throughout the country. Very early in the summer the local newspapers raised the implications of the Military Service Bill, reintroducing conscription. They came to the conclusion that the county player it would most affect was Maurice, as he was in his twenty-first year and would immediately fall within its scope. In addition, he had been given a free transfer by Leicester City, so he would have no obvious winter employment if he were not called up. Later on in the summer, he said that he would not be looking for another football club, because of his impending call-up. Leicestershire were also looking forward to the prospect of a new captain. Dempster, who had only played in half the games in 1938, had indicated that he would play even less this summer. The county had turned to the third and youngest Packe brother, Michael. He had just come down from Cambridge, where he had not won a blue, and had not played county cricket at all the previous year. Still only 22, he was not yet capped by Leicestershire and holds the remarkable distinction of being awarded his county cap half way through the season in which he was captain. A couple of years previously, the committee had decided that a county cap (or colours as they chose to describe them) should be awarded on the recommendation of the captain, but they could not follow this rule in 1939. Geoffrey Webb, the energetic and efficient secretary, had moved on, and the new secretary was Captain Skinner, who was ‘a good chap and recommended to the club by Webb’. The county also faced a season without the steadying influence of George Geary, now coaching at Charterhouse in Surrey. Ewart Astill, having failed to become secretary of the club, was still coach, but at the start of the season was still on a boat travelling back from New Zealand with Sir Julien Cahn’s team. 30 Leicestershire debut, 1938 and 1939