Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

The following week, Maurice was to relearn what local rivalry was all about. Kettering travelled up the A6 to play Rushden in the second preliminary round of the FA Cup. Interest was intense, and over 2,000 Kettering supporters travelled the short distance. A ground record crowd of 5,325 saw Kettering victorious 2-1. The only disputed incident was when a shot from Maurice slid along the ground, to be saved on the line by the Rushden goalkeeper. Happily for the result and the quick-shuttered cameramen, the picture revealed that it was not a goal. The next week, in a Birmingham League match, Maurice scored a hat-trick in a 6–1 thrashing of Wellington. This time ‘The Friar’ was to report ‘better understanding between the forwards’. Important matches were following thick and fast at this stage of the season, and Kettering had their most important home match of the season, against Peterborough United in the FA Cup third qualifying round. An amazing crowd of 11,536, the largest ever attendance at the ground, turned up to watch Peterborough win by 4-3. Kettering very much held their own against a team from a higher-rated league. Maurice did not receive an individual mention, only that the ‘Poppies forwards never really blended’. For the rest of the season, Maurice played in almost every match, generally at No.10, but on several occasions switching to No.8. He got favourable mentions from time to time, his refreshing enterprise helping secure a win against Aston Villa ‘A’. That Kettering had their eyes on bigger and better competitions was underlined by the president, W.B.Wright, attending a meeting in Manchester of 25 clubs not in the Football League, with the idea that they should form a feeder division for the élite league. In fact the first game that Maurice missed was, unsurprisingly in view of his earlier comments, the Boxing Day fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘A’. Maurice missed a penalty in the top-of-the-table home match against Kidderminster Harriers, and one can imagine the ire of 5,000 Kettering fans towards someone from Leicestershire, but the game was won nevertheless so maybe he was forgiven. A Northamptonshire Senior Cup defeat to Rushden apart, a game in which Maurice did not play for the rather sad reason that he was attending his father’s funeral, the team won match after match. Critically, he scored the only goal in the away match at Kidderminster in early April, which took them to the top of the table, and two weeks later in the home win against Halesowen, he played ‘one of his best games for the club’. The club were crowned champions the following Saturday, 24 April, defeating Halesowen again 4–1. The only disappointment for the club was that the game was played away so they missed out on another large gate. Winning the Birmingham League must have been satisfying; at least now he was playing football locally and perhaps on his own terms. He played in 18 or so matches (out of the 26 league fixtures), scoring eight goals. He returned to Kettering the following winter. There seems a certain irritation in the comment in early October, that ‘Tompkin is not confirmed as fit,’ suggesting that he may well have had a couple of weeks well deserved Football winters 41