Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Over 3,000 people turned up on a beautiful day: Charles Palmer duly won the toss. Though Maurice was dismissed for only three, Leicestershire scored almost 300. Kent batted poorly in their first innings, and in the follow-on, Cowdrey scored 81. It was not enough to set Leicestershire a challenging target, and they won by seven wickets. By this time interest had reached fever pitch. Surrey were the next team to visit Loughborough, and they were not top of the table because they had played fewer games, but in everyone’s eyes, they were the team to beat, and what is more, they were at full strength. The ground was packed; 4,750 attended on the first day, a Wednesday, and almost 4,000 on the second day. In total, over 17,000 watched the week’s cricket at Loughborough. A bad start by Leicestershire was reversed by a partnership of 135 for the third wicket between Maurice and his captain. But when they were dismissed, the rest of the side crumbled away, and they were all out for 243. Surrey made a determined reply, with Leicestershire’s cause not helped by an awful afternoon of outcricket where they put down many chances. Maybe the occasion was too much? Maybe they were all trying too hard? In any event Eric Bedser and Raman Subba Row put on 196 for the fifth wicket, and this gave Surrey a first-innings lead of 183. Leicestershire had only one choice, to play for a draw, with Palmer, Jackson, Smithson and Munden all playing stubborn innings. Derbyshire at Derby were the next opponents on the following day. Seeing a green wicket and with rain around, Palmer put Derbyshire into bat. In hindsight this turned out to be a mistake; Derbyshire did not declare until almost lunch on the second day, with 290 on the board. In Leicestershire’s reply, only Maurice withstood the Derbyshire attack for long. He scored 82 out of 132, batting for over four hours. It was not enough to avoid the follow-on, and in the second innings he was out for a duck fifth ball, lbw to Cliff Gladwin. He had the honour of bowling the over which Derbyshire needed to score the winning runs. The game at Grace Road against Essex on 19, 21, and 22 August represented something very special for the Leicestershire County Cricket Club – at the end of it they were standing first in the championship table. No matter that there were several matches to go, and no matter that Surrey had two matches in hand, Leicestershire were still top. Quite rightly, the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Alderman Charles Keene, said that the city should celebrate their achievement by giving the team a reception, an action that everyone seemed delighted about. The Essex game fluctuated: the visitors achieved a lead of 106 on first innings, despite 50 from Vic Jackson. This obviously inspired him because he then went on to take six cheap wickets in the Essex second innings, but Leicestershire were left to chase 243, the highest score of the match. This time, Maurice batted positively, scoring 49 in 98 minutes, but as the afternoon progressed it seemed that the greater danger would come from Years of Plenty, 1950 to 1953 88