Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

Against the best 86 centuries against Derbyshire (113) and Leicestershire (166) and 93 against Sussex, as a stand-in opener. He did hit two other hundreds from the middle order but during the Scarborough Festival he again opened; firstly, having secured a tour place, for the MCC’s Australia-bound XI against Leveson-Gower’s team and then, in the final game, for Yorkshire against the Rest - in which he scored 105. Within a few days of that game Maurice was on his way to Australia. A big crowd gathered in London, at St Pancras Station, to see the players off on the morning of September 17. From there they went to Tilbury to join the Orient liner Orontes and then it was past the Iberian peninsula to Gibraltar, on to Toulon, down the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, and then the length of the Red Sea and out into the Indian Ocean for a first stop at Columbo. To fit active young men the Orontes must have appeared awfully restrictive but they made the most of it. There were plenty of opportunities to exercise and regular sporting contests were organised. However, it was also important for the men to unwind and the inevitable concert party was formed. Here Maurice came into his own. To the outsider he was a veritable ‘quiet man’ of cricket. Former Australian opener Bill Brown, an opponent of Maurice’s in three Ashes series, remembered him as ‘quietly sitting in a corner with his pipe’ at post-match parties but given the right occasion Maurice was a born entertainer and throughout the voyage he took on the job as concert chairman with great enthusiasm and expertise. His deadpan comic genius enlivened, and enriched, life aboard ship for everybody. Although the 1932-33 tour to Australia is unquestionably the most discussed, and controversial, trip ever undertaken by a group of cricketers in the history of the game we may never know the full story. Maurice was rarely drawn on the subject. After his first tour to Australia he remarked: “Everything went well - I do not think there was a wrong word between us, and one of the reasons - the great reason, perhaps - for the success of the team, has been the team work.” If that was the case then, it was doubly so in the winter of 1932-33. And, the reluctance to get embroiled in the controversy, even after his playing days, not only further