Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

Ashes to Ashes 104 for Maurice for he is quoted by Whitington as saying: “He [Leyland] was a tremendously gifted batsman, in his temperament especially. He loved a fight and, also, was always on the look-out for a ball he could pelt over the fieldsmen. He’d hit you for six if you gave him the slightest opportunity and he was always at his best when his side was in trouble. He was a typical Yorkshire bloke - the tough guy of cricket. But when you got to know and admire him he was one of the finest you could wish to know.” * In the autumn of 1936 ‘one of Yorkshire’s finest’ once more left behind his friends and family for a tour of Australia. It was his third such trip and different again from the two made previously. Eight years earlier he was the ‘new kid on the block’, with only one international innings behind him - and that was a duck; while in 1932-33, with all the controversy of ‘Bodyline’ to contend with in an often acrimonious tour, his maturity and solidity of character were key components of successfully winning back the Ashes. Now, at the age of 36, he travelled in the role of ‘elder statesman’ in an England squad comprising: Gubby Allen (captain), Walter Hammond, Maurice Leyland, Charlie Barnett, Joe Hardstaff junior, Bob Wyatt, Walter Robins, Les Ames, Arthur Fagg, Stan Worthington, Hedley Verity, Ken Farnes, Bill Voce, George Duckworth and Jim Sims. Under the captaincy of Sydney-born Allen, whose uncle had actually played for Australia, this was always going to be a very different tour to the one under Jardine. But, if bonhomie was more the order of the day this time around the determination that typified the 1932-33 campaign was much less in evidence. It was the Melbourne Test that proved the turning point in the series for England had gone into that game with a 2-0 lead. In the First Test, at Brisbane, Maurice had opened his campaign with a magnificent 126 after coming to the wicket with England on 20 for three. Worthington attempted to hook McCormick’s first ball and skied a catch to Oldfield, Fagg then glanced McCormick to Oldfield, for four, and Hammond looped up a catch to Ray Robinson, at short leg. But, Maurice helped add 99 invaluable