Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

Kings Cross or St Pancras, but even if there was one running at a suitable time there was a not insignificant problem of a stranger to the city finding his way around once arrived. There were no luxury non-stop National Express coach routes in those days and he did not have his own car. So, he did the first thing that came into his head - took a taxi. Reports at the time suggested he had initially intended just to go to the station but then blurted out, “Take me to the Oval” . Can you imagine the driver’s face? But, it was nothing to the reaction from Arthur when informed of the cost once he had arrived at the Hotel Great Central, on Marylebone Road, to meet up with the rest of the players. “You what,” he declared, “I could a’ bowt t’ taxi fer less!” Having slept for much of the journey it was, literally, a rude awakening. He’d got to London all right, but now he had to pay his fare and didn’t have enough money. It was 1.30am but, with the driver still waiting, Arthur quickly went round his four Yorkshire team- mates borrowing what he could to meet his bill. Len Hutton later recalled Maurice donating just fourpence, and suspected him of having a part in influencing Arthur’s extravagant gesture, but, whatever the full story, Arthur was a jovial character and wasn’t going to let anything spoil the biggest day in his cricketing life. Cricket is a team game but, perhaps more than any other, it is a team game in which success depends so much on the sum total of individual performances, and this Oval Test was full of individual battles fought out on either side. For England Bill Edrich had again won favour with the selectors, very much against the tide of public opinion, and was very conscious of the need to justify the faith that skipper Wally Hammond, in particular, had shown in him. Despite making over 2,000 runs for Middlesex in 1938 the 24-year-old Edrich had made a dismal start to his Test career. Scheduled to bat at three on his debut at Trent Bridge he had to sit through a 219 run opening stand between Hutton and Charlie Barnett and was then bowled by O’Reilly having contributed just five to an England total of 658 for eight declared. He then made no score and ten in the second Test on his home ground at Lord’s and though there was a marginal improvement at Headingley, where he hit 12 and 28, the five wicket defeat left him a prime candidate for the axe. It took some hard talking by Hammond to A very happy return 14