Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

In the end it did Sellers no good, his side had to settle for a third place finish, but Maurice enjoyed a superb season, personally, with the county. Writing in his History of Yorkshire County Cricket (1949) Jim Kilburn remarked: “Leyland was the leading batsman in aggregate and average and in general attraction. More than any of his colleagues he brought a spirit of enterprise and cheerfulness to the wicket, and he was rewarded with seven centuries, including the highest score of his career, 263, against Essex at Hull.” The Hull performance was all the more noteworthy for the fact that it was the first Championship match of the season and Maurice had walked out to bat with his side having just lost Sutcliffe and Barber with only three runs on the board - but, as a foretaste of things to come, he proceeded to put on 247 runs for the fourth wicket with Leonard Hutton. Although there were the inevitable ‘blips’ he finished the season with 1,621 runs for Yorkshire, at 50.62, and he also weighed in with another 30 wickets at 25.63. Against the Indian tourists he made only 15 but was selected for the First and Third Tests, missing the second through injury, and made a creditable 60 for England at Lord’s. The injury, in fact, could not have come at a worse time for he was on top form. Apart from that century against Surrey, he hit 52 and 40 off Larwood and Voce against Nottinghamshire, at Trent Bridge, and then he came back after missing two games to take 107 off the Middlesex attack at Scarborough. Had he played in the second game against India he may have done something toward boosting his England average against ‘the rest’. While his record in England versus Australia contests was second only to Bradman’s during his ten year international career he never managed to achieve quite as much against South Africa, India or the West Indies and he never played against New Zealand. There were doubtless some good performances in the 1929 series against South Africa, 73 and 102 at Lords, and in the return games on the 1930-31 trip, he hit 52 in the first innings at Cape Town and 91 and 46 at Johannesburg, but, until the Oval in 1935 that century at Lords in 1929 was the only three figure score made against anyone other than Australia. On the county scene, 1937 produced just 856 Championship Against the rest 112