Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

May was cold but dry, and another £25 was raised when a Leicestershire XI played the Electricity Sports club on the old Aylestone Road ground. The next local game, against Countesthorpe, was eagerly anticipated. Unhappily, the first attempt was washed out, but on Wednesday, 2 June, it went ahead as planned. The match against his old village team was played to a ‘packed crowd’, with spectators sitting on the natural grandstand. The Countesthorpe team included Arnold Warburton, who at 52 had been playing for 40 years, and was to continue until the end of the 1960s; former county colleague Tony Riddington’s son, Ian; his former headmaster’s son, Dick Gilliver; not to mention his brother-in-law Mike and former member of the 1930 school football shield winning team, Aubrey Hickford. At various times during the summer, Maurice received the support of other prominent sportsmen, and for this game he hit the jackpot, for in his side were three Leicester City footballers. These were Arthur Rowley and Derek Hines, who both played over 300 games for Leicester City and were prolific goalscorers, and Peter Small, a less regular player who was about to join Nottingham Forest. Though the cricket in these evening matches was of consequence only to those playing against the county players, Maurice had an enjoyable evening. He hit a fine 52 when Leicestershire batted, and as captain he was then able to bowl. He took two wickets in two balls, and off the next delivery, Arnold Warburton edged a chance to the wicketkeeper, a young 17-year-old from Cosby called Raymond Julian who, though flinging himself full length, just failed to take a very difficult chance. At the end of his spell Maurice finished with four wickets for five runs, and Countesthorpe finished just 19 runs short. Chris Tompkin remembers going round the ground with his mother collecting contributions from the crowd in a blanket. It was a happy evening spent amongst lifelong friends and neighbours. Other early season games included one against Alderman Newton’s School Old Boys at the Banks ground (which Philip Snow played in). This was played on the Sunday of a Whit weekend that was the ‘wettest in years’, and over an inch of rain fell. Maurice, playing for the Old Boys, was undefeated on 47 when rain brought an end to proceedings, and the match raised a ‘creditable’ £25 for his fund. The school magazine was disappointed and felt that, but for the weather, the Old Boys – with their star cricketer – might have achieved a famous victory. The Banks ground is just a few hundred yards from the county ground at Grace Road, and is sometimes used in modern times for extra parking when there are Twenty 20 matches at Grace Road. Seats for spectators needed to be transported from Grace Road at the end of play on Saturday and reinstalled ready for play on the Monday, a cost the county committee decided that Maurice had to bear. The weather in 1954 was terrible. For a batsman preferring hard wickets this was especially frustrating. His batting average for the summer was 31.58, a third higher than the average for all counties in the championship, approximating to an average of 50 in contemporary terms. Senior Professional 93