Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

Against the best 89 in Australia and if there were secret meetings on board ship, I didn’t know anything about them. As, for leg theory itself, I have no objection to it for a special purpose but for this kind of attack to become regular practice wouldn’t be in the best interest of the game because the range of the batsman would be so limited. Personally I don’t like batting against it - but I’m not frightened of it. Though always one to avoid any controversy, Maurice, all his life, was a moral man who was always prepared to stand up for what was right and on two issues, related to bodyline, he was emphatic. Firstly, that only Larwood could be successful with a leg theory attack: “Because no one else combined such astonishing pace with such accuracy”, and secondly: “Larwood never, in any circumstances, bowled with the object of hitting the batsman.” “If the batsman was frightened,” added Maurice, “that was not Larwood’s fault, and he, or any other fast bowler, was entitled to take advantage of the fact.” It was the Third Test at Adelaide, with the rubber standing at one game all, that ‘Bodyline’ blew up out of all proportion. There had been trouble even before the game with crowds disrupting English team practices - Douglas Jardine was to insist on private practice in future. In the match itself the injuries to Woodfull and Bert Oldfield overshadowed the efforts of the English batsmen who managed to take their first innings total to 341 despite a terrible start. It was 16 for three when Maurice went in to join Sutcliffe, who was then out for nine with the score on 30, but with Wyatt he then added 156 for the fifth wicket before being bowled by his renowned adversary ‘Tiger’O’Reilly for 83. England went on to score 412 in the second innings, Maurice adding another 42 to his tour total, and with the home side reduced to ten men, after the first innings retirement of Oldfield, they added only 193 to their first innings 222 and were beaten by 338 runs. But, the activity off the field was only just beginning. England duly won the Fourth Test, at Brisbane, by six wickets, thanks in no small part to Maurice, with 86 in the second innings, and Paynter who, with a raging temperature and suffering from tonsilitis, made his legendary trip from a hospital bed to the wicket