Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

The season now started to become difficult and the next four matches resulted in heavy defeats. Against Kent at Loughborough, Maurice bagged his first pair, being lbw to Doug Wright off his third ball, and then bowled Dovey off his second ball. The sequence of defeats also included an innings defeat by Derbyshire at Ilkeston, though this time there was some personal success. Maurice scored 61 in two hours out of Leicestershire’s second innings total of 118 before being ninth out, lbw to Bill Copson, but the defeat was still a rout. The Hinckley Town ground was not yet ready for a first-class match, and despite the crowd problems of the previous year and the limited facilities, Leicestershire returned once more to Barwell, whose church is so clearly visible from Hinckley Town’s most recent ground on Leicester Road. The wicket for the Worcestershire game was ‘lively’ throughout. Fortunately Leicestershire won the toss. Though they conceded a first-innings lead of 49, Worcestershire’s modest target of 123 was beyond them, Vic Jackson and Jack Walsh proving devastating. For Maurice, the return to a South Leicestershire League venue was not enjoyable; seven in the first and one in the second innings. The wicket was more suited to the more unorthodox style and vigorous hitting of George Watson (85), Jim Sperry (33) and Paddy Corrall (38 not out). It is hard with 2011 spectacles on to appreciate the excitement that accompanied the visit of the Middlesex team to Grace Road in mid-July. On the first day, the crowd was estimated at 10,000, the largest to attend a first-class match in Leicestershire since the visit of the 1921 Australians to the Aylestone Road ground. Playing for Middlesex were the cricketers of the summer, Denis Compton and Bill Edrich. The gate receipts for the day, £573 2s 6d, were sufficient to pay the salary of the highest-paid professional for a year. The spectators were well rewarded by some spectacular batting. In total, 1,405 runs were scored, 663 of them on the second day. On their second visit to the crease, Leicestershire found themselves well over 300 runs in arrears, thanks to some devastating batting, especially by Bill Edrich. During his innings of 257, he shared in partnerships of 159 with Jack Robertson, and 277 in just over two hours with Denis Compton. Les Berry, with 154, led the fight back but he was magnificently assisted by Maurice who scored 76 in two hours, putting on 152 with Berry, reaching his fifty by cutting Bill Edrich to the boundary. At lunchtime, Leicestershire led by just 17 runs with six wickets left, but more importantly, there was only eighty minutes left for play. It must be remembered that hours of play were changed to accommodate often lengthy journeys at the end of play. Leicestershire also had a lunch interval at 2 pm, to allow people working in the city of Leicester the chance to watch some cricket during their lunch break. Middlesex took the last six Leicestershire wickets in only 35 minutes for the addition of just 48 runs, and were therefore left with 25 minutes to War and Peace, 1940 to 1949 55