Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

First steps to stardom 58 cricketing development his brother Fred also had a little part to play during Maurice’s early years at Harrogate Cricket Club. Fred recalled one incident when he went out to open the batting with Maurice for Harrogate. “Ted had always told me to teach Maurice anything I could but you can only do so much by talking,” he explained: I hit the ball and Maurice called for a run that I didn’t think was there, so I hesitated. Then, with him determined to run, I reluctantly agreed to let him find out for himself and he failed to make his ground. Afterwards he said ‘We could have done it uncle’. I said you might have been able to - but I couldn’t! I think that taught him a little of the value of judgement and caution, although his eagerness to get off the mark sometimes got him into trouble later on. It was not all plain sailing for the youngster as he began to make his way in the game. He did reasonably well in his first two seasons at Harrogate, hitting 189 runs, averaging 47.25, in six games played before he joined the Army in 1918, and another 568 at 37.86, including a top score of 119, his maiden century, followed in his first season as a club professional in 1919. But, the next three years were filled with uncertainty. At club level he managed to chalk up over 1,000 runs and take over 100 wickets, and though he did receive a first team call up from Yorkshire he took a while to establish himself in the side. During the summer of 1919 Maurice was spotted playing in a game at the North Yorkshire village of Pateley Bridge and invited to the Yorkshire practices. Then, the following season, he was among the first to benefit from a change of policy within the county club that saw more younger players being given a chance with the second team, the ‘Rosebuds’, and he made his debut in a ten wicket win over a Yorkshire Council eleven at Halifax on May 13. If he wasn’t superstitious beforehand he could have been excused for being so midway through that first day when he was stumped for 13. He was nought not out in the second innings, with his side needing only six to win, but, surprisingly, he did make a contribution as an opening bowler with one for 30 in the