Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

the best Midlands county, as they finished above Northamptonshire, but higher than Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire as well. A championship hundred eluded Maurice; he twice got as far as 80. The first occasion was the return match against Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire’s largest victory of the season. Maurice put on 144 with Frank Prentice for the second wicket at a run a minute, before being out for 84, and the team total of 453 for eight declared also included an unbeaten century by Tony Riddington, his first (and only) century for the county. Northamptonshire were dismissed twice, and the game was over by lunchtime on the final day, thanks to 12 wickets by Jack Walsh. And what did he do on the ‘rest day’ of the Northamptonshire match? He played for his old club, Leicester Nomads, against a team raised by Ewart Astill, in a match at the ‘Dog and Gun’ watched by 2,000 people. He did not disappoint them, scoring 70 out of the Nomads 169 for seven. Ewart Astill’s team were 110 for eight at the end, with Vic Jackson and Jack Walsh both getting starts. Tommy Sidwell kept wicket for the Nomads and Colin Cowdrey, taking a break from holiday farming duties, played in Astill’s team. Leicestershire and Maurice ended the season in fine form. Maurice scored three consecutive fifties, including an 86 described by Wisden as ‘a good display of hitting’, and the team won their concluding fixtures against Kent and Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Compared with earlier in the season, 52 War and Peace, 1940 to 1949 The Leicestershire side which drew with Essex at Clacton in August 1946. Standing (l to r): P.Corrall (wk), G.Lester, W.A.Smith, M.Tompkin, A.Riddington, J.E.Walsh, V.E.Jackson. Sitting: W.A.Smith, G.L.Berry (capt), F.T.Prentice, G.S.Watson.