Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Leicestershire innings was built around a third-wicket partnership of 141 with his captain. A ninety-minute fifty in the second innings enabled a declaration, and Hampshire were always going to finish well short, and Leicestershire’s large margin of victory was apparently due less to batsmen throwing their wickets away and more to magnificent bowling by Vic Jackson, who took eleven wickets for 62 runs in the match. Maurice ended the season with something of a purple patch. Bad weather stopped Leicestershire winning both their last two matches, but against Gloucestershire he scored a two-hour century, where there was insufficient time for a declaration and a target, and in the next match against Sussex, he scored a fine 139* in 255 minutes, his highest of the season. This secured a first-innings lead, but bad weather once again precluded a declaration and target. His batting was now accepted as having moved up a gear. John Arlott in his review of 1950, Days at the Cricket , makes the point that the loss of six critical war years had delayed the rise of the next generation of consistent, forcing batsmen in the mould of Harold Gimblett. He lists three: The first is Maurice Tompkin who ought, for many years to come, to produce with fair regularity the type of innings which the average spectator so much enjoys. He drives very powerfully indeed and has scoring strokes all round the wicket. Perhaps he is, at the moment, a little deficient in confidence, but his sound work in the outfield links with his batting to ensure him a steady place in the side and he might, 70 Years of Plenty, 1950 to 1953 Maurice, in dark blazer, with his charges in the Grey High School first eleven, Port Elizabeth in 1950/51.