Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

32 Chapter three A family affair Even people who knew Maurice Leyland well as a cricketer probably knew very little about him as a person. He was a very private man and a man of few words. But, if it is the cricket books that will tell us much of what he did, it is to his family tree that we must look to find out much of who he was. The name of Leyland first appeared in the annals of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in the summer of 1907 when Ted, Maurice’s father, turned out for the county second eleven. He was already a hardened league professional and, at 30, not one of the ‘promising recruits’ the committee were talking of having justified expenditure on that year - but he did finish top of the bowling averages and collected a second eleven cap. Major Booth, who died in action in 1916, and Arthur Dolphin were both team-mates of Ted Leyland in 1907 but, despite being the most successful second eleven player that year, Ted never got a chance at first team level. Still, through the early inspiration and guidance that he gave Maurice, not to mention three years service as groundsman at Headingley in the early 1920s, his contribution to Yorkshire cricket was to prove immense. He was the professional assistant groundsman at Harrogate when he first got the call from Yorkshire and he made a spectacular playing debut at Ripon in the two wicket defeat by Lincolnshire on June 13 and 14. It was a game that did not start too well for the newcomer. Batting first, Yorkshire struggled against the Lincolnshire attack and having gone in with the score on 43 for four Ted immediately lost his partner, opener Charlie Grimshaw, and made just eight out of ten runs added before being sixth out - bowled by Fred Geeson. Geeson was an interesting character. He was 30 before he made his first class debut but managed to get in 135 games for Leicestershire between 1895 and 1902. Remarkably, his career even survived a ban on his action, in 1900, that forced him to switch from bowling right arm medium pace in favour of leg breaks. Following the change of style he immediately enjoyed a best ever first class season with 125 wickets, in 1901, but left