Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

A family affair 40 to arrive. In any event Maurice played and Ted’s side, having struggled against the bowling of Barnes and Parkin, were soon nine wickets down and with Leyland senior at one end and Leyland junior at the other. Taking pity on the youngster, Barnes began bowling slow looping deliveries but Ted stopped him short, “Nah then Syd,” he shouted, “cut out the easy ones. If he’s goin’ to make runs let him get ‘em reight.” Maurice stayed to make 28 in a useful last wicket stand with his dad. It was 1938 before Maurice and Barnes met again, in the Oval dressing room during the historic record-breaking Australian Test, and Barnes, having offered his congratulations to Maurice, then surprised him by recalling the 28 made against him in that charity game a quarter of a century earlier. The second game involving the Leylands to find a place in local folklore was for Moorside at Walsden, in June 1915, when Harry Smith broke the Central Lancashire League individual batting record with a knock of 205 out of 340 in only 44.2 overs. There was no hint of the impending mayhem when Ted Leyland’s opening bowling partner Buckley removed the first three batsmen, with only 61 on the board, but the 100 came up in fifty minutes and Smith went on to complete his century out of 154. One run later Ted broke the 94 run stand, for the fourth wicket, but Smith continued to plunder the bowling, taking 20 off one over from JAMellowdew, and his 200 came up with the score on 293 for five. Thankfully for Moorside the end was in sight. With the score on 306 Ted finally forced an error from the seemingly invincible Smith who was caught behind. Buckley finished the pick of the Moorside bowlers, with six for 115, but Ted managed to knock over two of the tail-enders to complete a four for 103 return and follow that up with a highly creditable 53 in helping Moorside to 160 for five. He was eventually out caught at cover by the irrepressible Smith. Maurice replaced Ted at the wicket and in a fairytale world the 14-year-old would have produced a scintillating display of batting and lifted his side to an unlikely win. However, the fact is, he made only three before having those old stumps rattled once again by the Walsden pro’, Storah, and Moorside were bowled for 277.