Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

to race it simply went round in circles. On investigation it transpired that the animal had been trained to work in a strip club as transport for Lady Godiva. Appointing Symington as captain left the committee with a ticklish problem. How to tell Les Berry that his services as captain were no longer required? In the end the committee chairman, F.S.Smith, was deputed to tell him with the strict proviso that the press were not to be told of the new appointment until this had happened. In return, Berry was formally made senior professional. Obviously the committee were encouraged by the way in which this process worked, for in March they awarded Symington his county cap. The county finished bottom of the Championship, and throughout there were grumbles about the slow batting. It was Paddy Corrall’s benefit year, and the most important news arising from his speech at the closing benefit dinner in December was his ‘scotching of rumours of discontent among the players’. It was a well-attended dinner, with only the absence of S.J.Symington, not present owing to army duties, noted quite pointedly in the Leicester Mercury account of the event. Maurice, too, was absent from the gathering at the Grand Hotel. He was in South Africa, coaching at Grey High School in Port Elizabeth. For him the first-class season had ended in rumbustious style at a festival match at Kingston upon Thames. For Maurice, the season started encouragingly with a century against Oxford, sharing in a double-century partnership in under three hours with Gerry Lester, an achievement which has stubbornly remained the county’s record for the third wicket against the University. The game was drawn, but there was a clear indication in this very first match of the season that all was not well. Though they were to lose the Varsity match, the Oxford captain Clive van Ryneveld impressed all with his ‘keen, firm and friendly’ captaincy. In the previous match, he had set Worcestershire 227 to win in 140 minutes, and lost. He set Leicestershire the same target, but undeterred by his experience, this time he left them three hours to score the runs. Sad to relate, Leicestershire did not take up the challenge and ended up on 116 for four after 44 overs, with Maurice scoring only eight. At one stage the innings was tottering at 35 for three but it seemed that the mood of the season had already been established. The first victory of the season was not obtained until the end of June, when Nottinghamshire were defeated by an innings, thanks mainly to 15 wickets for Jack Walsh. Though Paddy Corrall’s benefit match, against Middlesex in early July, was a great financial success for the beneficiary, it was still another defeat for Leicestershire, who were in charge until the last afternoon. In fact they had a first-innings lead of 142, thanks to a fine 94 by Maurice in two hours, including a century partnership in 80 minutes with Vic Jackson. Middlesex had eight wickets down in their second innings – six of them dismissed with the help of Paddy Corrall, who took three catches and three stumpings. A partnership of 107 for the ninth wicket between Jim Sims and Jack Young, a Leicestershire trialist before the war, left the War and Peace, 1940 to 1949 64