Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

134 Chapter thirteen Many happy returns As the first ball of the innings whipped past the outside of his bat Maurice jerked back in surprise. He was opening the batting for Harrogate in a Yorkshire League game and unprepared for the speed in which the ball had come on to him. Since retiring from Yorkshire as a player at the end of the 1946 season, and returning to St George’s Road to captain his home town club Harrogate, he had grown used to a rather more sedate pace being served up by the opposition bowlers. The next was rather fuller pitched and he hurriedly brought his bat down to keep it out. Opening partner Jack Lancaster walked down the wicket. “Maurice,” he said quietly. “I think there’s something wrong here.” Maurice reassured him and prepared to face again. Again the bowler hurried him, again Lancaster voiced his concerns. From the fourth ball of the over Maurice managed to produced a fine cut for four that brought back the memories of his pre-war assaults on the world’s best but then got a touch on another awkward delivery and was caught. As he made his way back to the pavilion his partner, still plagued by a nagging doubt about something he couldn’t just put his finger on, had a hunch. He politely asked the umpire if he wouldn’t mind checking the length of the pitch. He obliged by pacing it out and, having arrived at the stumps the other end after only 20 paces, he promptly held up play and called for a measuring tape. Sure enough, the pitch was found to be only 20 yards long - two yards short of the regulation length. The umpires had no option but to restart the game from scratch but Maurice was adamant that he would not go back in as he felt he had been fairly dismissed. Eventually he was persuaded that there was no other alternative, as the game had to be restarted on a new wicket, but having equalled the four runs he made in the first innings he instantly gave his wicket away. It was this sort of gesture that typified Maurice the man. For someone who had enjoyed the world stage as a cricketer and had won the highest honours possible as a professional he had a certain amount of nobility. However, for his team-mates, who had probably thought