Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

smelt him underneath, he piddled in his eye. Then, just to show the city dogs he didn’t care a damn, he strolled inside a grocer’s shop - and piddled on the ham. He piddled on the onions, he piddled on the floor, and when the grocer kicked him out, he piddled on the door. Behind him, all the city dogs debated what to do. They’d hold a Piddling Carnival and show the stranger through. They showed him all the piddling posts they knew about the town and started out, with many winks, to wear the stranger down. But, Pete was with them, every one, with vigour and with vim, a thousand piddles, more or less, were all the same to him. On and on went noble Pete, with hind legs kicking high, while most were lifting legs in bluff - and piddling mighty dry. On and on went noble Pete, watering every sandhill, until the defeated city dogs were piddled to a standstill. Then Pete an exhibition gave, on all the ways to piddle, like double drips and fancy flips, and now and then a dribble. And all the time this country dog did neither growl or grin but piddled blithely out of town as he had piddled in. The city dogs said “So long Pete. Your piddling did defeat us”, but no one ever put them wise that Pete had DIABETES! ANON It is not worth elaborating on the other humorous tit-bits to be found in Mercy Leyland’s scrapbook - this says it all really. Here, clearly, is a down to earth lady with a readiness to laugh. Small wonder Maurice managed to turn out like he did. However, despite her sense of fun, Mercy had more than her share of uncertainty and heartache in her life. She had far from a settled home life as a youngster and, later, cricket was responsible for some emotional separations. She was born in the historic Yorkshire market town of Ripon, at Priest Lane, the second child of Matthew Lambert, an ostler, and his Derby-born wife Mary, on June 1, 1877 and christened Mercy. Work was not always easy to come by for Matthew. He was unemployed, in fact, at the time of the 1881 census and he and his wife had three children, Mary (Polly) (aged five), Mercy (three) and Cordelia (Della) (ten months) to raise. It could Mum’s the word 49