Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

slower and eventually conceded first-innings points just before the close on the final day. The next two matches were both at home, and brought few runs. He helped score the rapid 90 needed to beat Somerset. The game against Derbyshire at Ashby was a low-scoring affair. No innings reached 200, and in the circumstance a winning margin of 41 runs, when the total scored in the match was only 450, was substantial. On 17 July therefore, with the Championship two-thirds completed, Leicestershire were in fifth position, having won five games, but still some distance behind Sussex and Surrey who had both won eight. The game at The Oval, starting on 18 July, was therefore of critical significance. Surrey had in their attack Alec Bedser, Peter Loader and Jim Laker. The bowling was very accurate, and Maurice’s innings of 12 lasted almost an hour. It did not include any boundaries, and the county had managed only 44 for four by lunch. From this point, Leicestershire were always behind, and conceded a first-innings lead of over a hundred. In the second innings he was able to be more positive, with his 40 containing five fours, but the target left for Surrey was totally inadequate and defeat by nine wickets ensued. The game at Worcester, for Roley Jenkins’ benefit, starting on the following Saturday, was a triumph. In a rain-affected match, a century partnership with Charlie Palmer ensured a substantial first-innings lead. Jeff Goodwin and Jack Walsh bowled Worcestershire out, leaving Leicestershire needing 112 to win in 100 minutes. Worcestershire adopted the defensive tactic of bowling wide on the leg side. But Maurice was in supreme form. Hitting sixes off the guilty bowling of George Chesterton and Kenny Lobban, he delivered the coup de grace by hitting the Worcestershire captain, Ronny Bird, for four. His innings of 74 out of 115 meant that Leicestershire won with ten minutes to spare. Any team that does not quite win the Championship later identifies certain fixtures that they ‘should have won’. Certainly failing to defend 200 at Loughborough against Hampshire would be one, and 346 against Sussex at Leicester would be another. The game in the last three days of July, at Coventry against Warwickshire, was one where they could feel cheated by the weather. By this stage of the summer, Maurice was hitting prime form, and when questioned the following year just before his benefit he believed that his Coventry innings was the best that he played. He scored 125 out of 267, with a partnership of 80 with Vic Munden for the sixth wicket the rock around which the innings was built. Batting in all for four hours and hitting 12 fours, he never allowed the bowlers to tie him down. Jack Walsh did his job and Leicestershire had a first-innings lead of over 100. Rapid batting in the second innings (Maurice 41 in 79 minutes) left Warwickshire with 270 minutes to score an unlikely 337 runs to win, only for rain to dash Leicestershire’s hopes after only ten minutes, and secure four points rather than the 12 for an outright win. Years of Plenty, 1950 to 1953 84