Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

at 11.30am, there was a downpour and on went the covers. As it happened the delay was not too great and by 11.55am everything was again ready to start. The extra minutes had given spectators a chance to get in the ground and get settled - and there were plenty of them . At 10.30am the crowd was as big as at any time on Saturday and now there must have been close on 25,000 people to cheer the two batsmen all the way to the wicket. Maurice took two off the first ball by Fleetwood-Smith from the pavilion end and then added a single off the last. Another two to leg off O’Reilly, but no more came in the next over so it was five minutes before the crowd had a chance to see Hutton in action. He didn’t disappoint them. The first ball of Fleetwood- Smith’s second over was a full toss and the grateful opener cracked it through the off side to the boundary to overtake the 323 run opening stand between Wilfred Rhodes and Jack Hobbs at Melbourne on the 1911-12 tour and bring up the highest partnership for England against Australia. Maurice soon produced another straight drive for four off O’Reilly to put him out of the attack. By the time he returned, at the pavilion end, England, in seven hours, had taken their total past the 400 mark and Maurice, on 187, had passed Philip Mead’s 182 not out, at the Oval, in 1921 - the highest individual score against Australia in England prior to Hammond’s 240 in the second Test of this series at Lord’s. Hutton at once hit O’Reilly for two fours to join Leyland on 187 and the two Yorkshire terriers clearly looked to have the ‘Tiger’ by the tail. Edrich still looked on, and ‘LAST MAN 12’ still looked back at him. “While two of the grandest players who ever wore England caps taught the brilliant Australian bowling a lesson it will never forget,” he recalled, “I kept asking myself, Why wasn’t I out there doing the same?” TheYorkshire newspapers were full of reports about housewives getting up in the early hours to finish their chores by the start of play and follow the progress of their newest heroes. Business was conducted to the background accompaniment of Howard Marshall’s commentary and schoolboys all over the county put their summer holiday activities on hold. For young Geoff, in Harrogate, it was unmissable - until he was asked to go on an The match 25