Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

168 * Blenkinsop of Alwoodley: ‘One of our greatest sportsmen and an example to so many of our young men in all sports today. I find it a sad thought that there are so few (like him) to follow - if any!’ Reg Dickens wrote directly to Maurice’s sister-in-law, Emma Rimington, on behalf of Harrogate Cricket Club, where he was secretary, saying: No words of mine can convey the unique contribution he made to the game, nationally, internationally and, especially, locally. But this knowledge alone will, I am sure, be a comfort to you all at this time of sorrow. Please also accept my own personal sympathy at this time. Maurice represented all that was worthwhile in cricket. ‘In Memoriam Hilarem’ indeed. It was important to finish this story with just the right words and it was one time Bradford Grammar School ‘Classics’ master Ian Bentley, a staunch Yorkshire cricket fan, who provided them when I went to him looking for an appropriate adjective to describe the way almost everyone remembered Maurice. For those like myself, for whom speaking English properly is task enough, the title of this chapter can be translated simply as ‘In happy memory’. I’ve yet to meet anyone who would argue with that. In Memoriam Hilarem