Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

to that section of the crowd to look after it for him. The Aussie’s loved it. Thereafter he had their utmost respect. But, Maurice, while never malicious, was capable of deflating the most inflated ego at a stroke - he was the master of the humorous put down. His old pre-war Yorkshire team mate Abe Waddington, who took great pride in his appearance, caused a bit of a stir in the dressing room one day when he turned up for a game wearing a £15 Saville Row coat - a huge sum in those days. “What do you think of this Maurice,” he said. “Lovely isn’t it. What do you think of the cut?” “It looks as if it’s been cut with a knife and fork,” came the deadpan reply. “You don’t kid me there,” continued Abe. “But, seriously, I was wondering if it’s just an inch or two short.” “Aye, it is,” said Maurice, “but don’t worry, it’ll be long enough before you get another one.” No one was immune to Maurice’s droll wit. As Johnny Wardle would have testified. Wardle was one of Yorkshire and England’s great left arm spinners but after bowling himself to near exhaustion on one particularly unproductive day, on a bowler’s graveyard of a pitch at Scarborough, he looked to Maurice for a reassuring word. “Do you know,” he said earnestly, “every time I bowl a bad ball I could kick myself.” “Could you now?” was Maurice’s chirpy reply. “Nay, Johnny, tha must be black and blue!” He also used humour to make a serious point. Like the time he shouted to Len Hutton, “Leyland’s the name not Nurmi,” a champion Finnish sprinter, after just making his ground following a call for a quick single. Then to Walter Robins who, according to reports, was apt to be a little headstrong when batting. In the second Test on the 1936-37 tour of Australia, however, Maurice masterfully brought his partner in check following a decidedly risky call for a single. With close of play imminent, and six wickets down in the fourth innings of the match, he sarcastically remarked: “Steady on, we’re 500 behind, we can’t get ‘em all tonight!” In later life the humour served as a vital weapon in the bid to cope with debilitating illness. Adversity merely served as a new Mum’s the word 47