Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

However, every so often we would go mad and shake up one or two of the top sides, really looking like a good side. These incidents made us more firmly convinced that that the makings of a fairly good eleven were not very far away, so that with our friends the supporters at long last getting decent seats to sit upon, so being able to grumble with a little more comfort and sit at ease under the English sun!! Our only hope is that we can continue to play cricket in a keen and attractive way, so that they may extract full enjoyment from this great game of ours. There was therefore a quiet optimism, the team was starting to believe in itself, though with the caution that injuries or misfortune with the weather could unhinge the delicate balance of the side. The season started with the arrival of the Australians. For once the weather was sunny, and though the crowd of over 9,000 on the first day did not match that of 1948, the ground was full to bursting. In six hours, the Australians scored 443 off 121 overs, with fast bowlers Terry Spencer and Jeff Goodwin bowling over 40, and Neil Harvey finished unbeaten on 202. Leicestershire’s reply on the Monday was disappointing, and Maurice managed two very brief innings. In the first he hit his second ball from Ron Archer for four, but was dismissed a few minutes later; in the second he hit his third off Jack Hill for four, but was out in the following over. An innings defeat in two days was the result. Maurice did not have long to wait for his first century of the season. The following Saturday they travelled down to Bristol. Batting first they were bowled out for 243 with Maurice making 109 with 11 fours in under four hours. No one else made many runs with the Bristol wicket playing true to type and helping Bomber Wells and Sam Cook. Though set over 300 in the fourth innings, Gloucestershire – thanks to a Tom Graveney century – won by six wickets, with Jackson and Walsh failing to bowl them out in favourable conditions. Travelling back to Loughborough, another remarkable defeat at the hands of Hampshire followed. Leicestershire bowled their opponents out for only 68, helped by injuries to Leo Harrison and Charlie Knott. The injury to Knott was doubly important as he had bowled out Leicestershire in very favourable conditions in their first innings. Chasing 196, the highest innings total of the match, Hampshire won by nine wickets, with the spinners failing to make an impact once again. Maurice always rated his bowling; the main problem was that his captain, Charlie Palmer, did not. This game ended with a Tompkin leg-break – or perhaps a googly, if indeed it pitched at all – being hit for two. With the county cricket fixture list at its most eccentric, the next fixture was also against Hampshire, but this time at Portsmouth, after a journey taking over six hours. Leicestershire, after a tired first innings of 91, managed to stave off an innings defeat thanks to an unbroken last-wicket Years of Plenty, 1950 to 1953 81