Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

First steps to stardom 60 his new team-mates he got to the ground at Southchurch Park and was first out to begin his preparations for the game. It was a horrendous way to begin a first class cricketing career. Apart from the fact that the journey from Harrogate had been an absolute nightmare, he could not have had a clue what to expect. Not only were some of the Yorkshire players virtual strangers, he had never actually seen a county cricket match! He didn’t have to wait too long to be involved. He was down to bat at four and that meant padding up from the start. Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe put on exactly 50 for the first wicket, George Louden removing Holmes for 27, and David Denton went two runs later giving Louden his second wicket. That brought Maurice to the crease for the first of countless partnerships he was to share with Sutcliffe. He flourished briefly, outscoring Sutcliffe with ten out of the 17 runs added, but was then bowled by Essex medium pacer Joe Dixon and a catch to dismiss Essex skipper Johnny Douglas, off Wilfred Rhodes, was the only other tangible contribution he made to Yorkshire’s eventual 122 run victory. That season brought 259 runs and 27 wickets in second eleven cricket and in a more competitive programme the following year, having dispensed with the games against the district league elevens, his figures were 123 runs (at 12.31) and 14 wickets (at 17.88) in the seconds, and 103 (at 25.75) in five County Championship appearances. His first-class tally included his first half century, 52 not out against Leicester, at Headingley, in an unbroken 133 run seventh wicket stand with Rhodes, and he claimed his first Championship wicket in the same game. Lord Hawke always maintained that it took three years to make a county cricketer and Maurice was to prove him right yet again. He collected his ‘Rosebud’ cap, following a knock of 76 against Cheshire, at Northwich, in June 1922, and was so proud of his achievement he wouldn’t let it out of his sight - he carried it all the way home. That same year he began to appear more regularly in the first team, making 220 runs, and played against both the MCC at Scarborough and the Rest of England in the end of season clash with the champion county, on this occasion Yorkshire, at the Oval. In the latter he was bowled by Arthur Gilligan in both