Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

135 Many happy returns about their Saturday’s cricket all week, perhaps to alleviate the inevitable boredom that accompanies even the most rewarding nine to five work, the idea of giving your opponent an advantage was looked on with horror. However, Maurice left a lasting impression on the younger players coming into the Harrogate side at this time - among them the club’s greatest post-war servant Peter Chadwick. In 1949 the 15-year-old all-rounder Chadwick came down from the Dales to play for Harrogate. The Pateley Bridge-born teenager had known of Maurice all his life as his father, Granville, had played for the Pateley football team against him in matches with the Harrogate side New Park. The two had also known each other through cricket and Maurice was a regular visitor to the Pateley Bridge ground with Harrogate and Yorkshire elevens. With Harrogate stalwart Lol Whincup, Maurice had watched Chadwick on two or three occasions and eventually the youngster was invited down to St George’s Road where he turned out in a friendly fixture with a team from Nottingham and in a Yorkshire Council game at Hull. Peter Chadwick in 2016 with a framed photograph of him presented with a bat by Maurice Leyland, for heading the Nidderdale Junior League batting averages for the 1949 season