Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

That innings of 64 was his last half-century of the summer. Several defeats and a lot of rain interruptions sums up the story of cricket in August, though right at the end of the season there was victory against the county champions, Glamorgan. This was their second victory over them during the season. The destroyer at Grace Road, as in Cardiff, was Jack Walsh who took 14 wickets. It has to be said that Glamorgan were not quite on their best form for this match. M.J.K.Smith, who was a spectator at the game, recalls that they had been celebrating their success with such zeal that Gilbert Parkhouse ended up in hospital. Walsh was aided by fine wicket-keeping by Paddy Corrall, and five boundary catches, including a spectacular one-handed effort by Maurice which Mike could still remember over sixty years later. This year there were no festival match invitations, and Maurice did not play football for Kettering until the end of October: because of his back problems he was taking a well-deserved rest. * * * * * The summer of 1949, though sunny and warm, was difficult for Leicestershire. The county committee took the decision to return to appointing an amateur captain even though, among other publications, The Cricketer had praised Les Berry as ‘an excellent captain’. There always seemed to have been unease at appointing him, and given half a chance they would really have liked to appoint an amateur. Under Berry, the county had finished at 11th, 14th and 11th in the table, which for Leicestershire were almost satisfactory achievements, but the team were all getting older and apart from Vic Munden, no exclusively post-war players had established themselves. In early February 1949, the committee proposed that S.J.Symington should be captain for the following season. Stuart Symington, the scion of a wealthy South Leicestershire corset-manufacturing family, had played a few matches in 1948 without performing outstandingly well, and appears to have been chosen as captain because he was an amateur and could make himself available for most of the season. Gwynn Evans, who had been playing cricket on Victoria Park, would be his deputy when military duties called Symington away. Indeed, Symington ‘liked a drink’ and was something of a flirt who also liked a flutter. At 22, he was the youngest member of an established team of professionals who would certainly not be impressed by his tactical skills or cricketing knowledge. In later life, he became an expert in women’s underwear, and could at a glance estimate a lady’s size in undergarments. He was not a particularly good judge of horseflesh, however. Whilst serving in Germany he and his colleagues bought a horse for racing. This animal had apparently a reasonable pedigree and looked the part, but when asked War and Peace, 1940 to 1949 63