Maurice Leyland

English cricketer (1900–1967)

Maurice Leyland (20 July 1900 – 1 January 1967) was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938. In first class cricket, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1920 and 1946, scoring over 1,000 runs in 17 consecutive seasons. A left handed middle order batsman and occasional left arm spinner, Leyland was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1929. Born in Harrogate, Leyland came from a cricketing family. After playing locally, he made his Yorkshire debut in 1920, and appeared intermittently in the following two seasons. Although not statistically successful, he impressed judges at the club, and was a regular member of the team from 1923. He steadily improved over the following seasons to reach the fringes of the England team and made his Test debut in 1928 against the West Indies. That winter, he toured Australiaa controversial decision as he replaced the famous batsman Frank Woolleyand scored a century in his only Test of the series. He remained in the side until 1930, but a loss of form in the next two seasons called his place into question. He recovered by scoring 1,000 runs in August 1932 to secure his inclusion in the team to tour Australia in 1932–33. During that series, Leyland scored runs several times under pressure and by the time Australia toured England in 1934, he was a leading batsman in the team. He held his place until 1938 when he was replaced in the team by younger batsmen for the series against Australia. Recalled for the final match, he scored 187, his highest Test score in what became his last match. After military service in the Second World War, Leyland returned to the Yorkshire team for one season before announcing his retirement from regular first class cricket. He maintained his connection with Yorkshire, and served as the county coach between 1950 and 1963. He died in 1967. Although he was neither aesthetically nor technically among the best batsmen, Leyland had a reputation for batting well under pressure. He performed most effectively against the best teams and bowlers, and in difficult situations; his Test batting record is better than his first class figures, and against Australia his average is even higher. Outside of Tests, he had some success with the ball, and had it not been for the depth of spin bowling in Yorkshire, he might have been a leading bowler. He was one of the first to bowl left arm wrist spin, and may have invented the name to describe such deliveries: "chinamen". Very popular with team mates and spectators, Leyland had a reputation as a humorist, and many stories were told about him.

Leyland was born on 20 July 1900 in Bilton, an area of Harrogate, to Mercy (née Lambert) and Edward (Ted) Leyland. He was registered at birth as Morris Leyland but his name was usually spelt "Maurice". His father was a stonemason and a well respected professional cricketer for Moorside in Lancashire. and in later years continued that role at Harrogate, Headingley Cricket Ground and Edgbaston. and by the age of fourteen had graduated to the Lancashire League. and Yorkshire's second team, He had never previously attended a County Championship game. In the latter part of the 1922 season he played more regularly, replacing Norman Kilner in the team. Although Leyland's batting figures were unimpressive, the summary of Yorkshire's season in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack said he "gave signs of promise as a forcing batsman and fielded very finely". His highest score in 14 matches was 29,

Leyland played regularly in the 1923 season and reached 1,000 runs in first class cricket, a total he exceeded in each of the seventeen seasons between 1923 and the outbreak of war in 1939. During this period, Yorkshire won the County Championship in four successive seasons from 1922 to 1925. A later review of Leyland's career in Wisden suggested that this team was one of Yorkshire's strongest, but sometimes became over competitive and aggressive. The review stated that this environment "was a hard school for a young cricketer, but Leyland thrived on such discipline, and he has never lost his laugh." By the beginning of the 1924 season, Leyland was recognised in The Times as one of the most promising young professional batsmen in England; the newspaper's cricket correspondent said that Leyland "is fully expected, in Yorkshire, to develop into a first rate left handed batsman." He continued to improve that season, scoring 1,259 runs at 30.70. By the end of the 1926 season, in which he scored 1,561 runs at 39.02 and hit five centuries,

Following the example of Wilfred Rhodes, several Yorkshire cricketers in the 1920s spent English winters coaching in India for the Maharaja of Patiala. Leyland coached in the winter of 1926–27, along with Arthur Dolphin, the Yorkshire wicketkeeper. That same winter, a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team toured India; although not chosen in the touring party, both Leyland and Dolphin played a handful of matches for the MCC. During the 1927 season Leyland scored 1,625 runs at 41.66, In August, he was selected in a trial game to assess players who might represent England in Test matches (playing against the England team for a side named "The Rest") and scored 102. Shortly after returning from India, Leyland married Constance (Connie) Russell in Harrogate on 29 March 1928. In later years, Connie looked after the children of Herbert Sutcliffe during Yorkshire matches at Harrogate when their behaviour became too much for their own mother. Sutcliffe's daughter later recalled Connie as "very stern and cross", and the only person who could control her and her brother: "I was frightened to death."

Like Leyland, the Yorkshire bowler Roy Kilner coached in India during 1927–28. However, in doing so Kilner contracted a fever and died shortly after returning to England. He had done little bowling for Yorkshire at this point; the team possessed two slow left arm spinners in Kilner and Rhodes, leaving Leyland with little opportunity. At this stage, the Yorkshire authorities thought that he might fully take on Kilner's bowling workload,
Leyland also had his most effective season with the bat. He scored 1,783 runs at an average of 54.03, At the end of July, the MCC named the team to tour Australia for the 1928–29 Ashes series. Leyland was included in the team; according to The Times, it would have been difficult to leave him out and his presence lifted the fielding ability of the side. His selection was controversial in the south of England, and particularly in Kent, as he took the place that the veteran Kent batsman Frank Woolley was expected to fill. One Kent supporter wrote that Leyland was a "cross bat village greener". Pelham Warner, a selector at the time, claimed that Leyland's superior fielding influenced the decision, but the cricket writer Alan Gibson suggests that the real choice was between Woolley and Phil Mead, two batsmen of similar age. In 1928, the West Indies toured England, playing their first Test matches. The team did not perform well, but the England selectors picked strong teams to provide practice for the players. Leyland was selected for the last of the three Test matches. Making his debut on 11 August 1928, he was dismissed for 0by Herman Griffith in his only innings. The MCC team which toured Australia was extremely strong in batting, and Leyland served as back up to the main batsmen. The English batting line up was settled for most of the series, leaving little opportunity for the reserves; although Mead played in the first Test, he was subsequently left out to strengthen the bowling. Playing in other first class matches on the tour, Leyland scored centuries against South Australia and Queensland. England lost the match, but Leyland was successful. He scored 137, his first Test century, and 53 not out. Overall, in first class matches on the tour, he scored 614 runs at 43.85, In another game, Cardus observed that Leyland seemed to be attempting left handed googly bowling. Following success in a trial game, In the Second Test, played at Lord's, he scored 73 and 102. Leyland was little more effective, and his highest score in the series was 44; England lost 2–1. At the time, Yorkshire v Lancashire matches were mainly dour, slow scoring affairs, but Leyland played freely to score 211 not out in around 270 minutes. He hit two sixes in one over, and, according to Cardus, played "great and beautiful cricket". Leyland's best bowling performance that year came for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's, when he took seven for 94 in the first innings and nine wickets in the match. In first class matches, he scored 774 runs at 36.85 and took nine wickets; Wisden later suggested that he was "stale";

At the beginning of the 1932 season, Leyland continued to struggle. Eventually, Sutcliffe began to hook the short ball and in six successive overs, he and Leyland added 102 runs, an unusually fast rate of scoring. Leyland faced little of the bowling, later remembering that he received only four deliveries in this period, hitting each for four. In total, he contributed only 45 runs to the partnership. Farnes was reduced to tears by the assault on his bowling, and these events possibly persuaded the MCC selectors to leave him out of the team for the 1932–33 tour. At the end of the season, he scored 105 against the Rest of England for Yorkshire, his team playing as County Champions. Leyland was not particularly successful in statistical terms. Other Australian commentators had a more favourable opinion. In the second Test, Leyland scored 109 and shared a partnership of 129 with Les Ames; in the next match, he hit 153 runs, sharing large partnerships with Patsy Hendren and Ames, and in the final Test, he played an innings of 110. In addition to his batting successes, Leyland was generally the best outfielder in the England team. He also scored three centuries for Yorkshire, another for the Rest of England against Lancashire, the Champion County, and 80 for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's. his benefit eventually raised £3,648, at the time the third highest amount raised for a Yorkshire player. refn|The only higher amounts for Yorkshire were £3,703 raised for George Hirst in 1904 and £4106 for Roy Kilner in 1925. Only Herbert Sutcliffe also received over £3,000 before the Second World War. During the winter of 1934–35, Leyland toured the West Indies with an MCC team which lost the four Test series 2–1. The English batsmen were overwhelmed by the pace bowlers of the West Indies team, and some MCC players complained that Learie Constantine, Manny Martindale and Leslie Hylton intimidated the visiting batsmen with short pitched bowling. Leyland played three Tests but scored only 36 runs in six innings. After taking part in a tour of Jamaica by the Yorkshire team, on which he scored 115 and 75 in successive games, but only batted twice. In the first Test, he scored 60 runs against a strong bowling attack when England were in a difficult position. The team won the first two Tests, but lost the next three to lose the series 3–2, and Wisden blamed a weakness in batting for the defeat. Leyland was one of the few batsmen excused: "Leyland, though very restrained, was one of the mainstays of the batting". At this point, he had scored four centuries in seven Test innings against Australia. Then in the third Test, on a pitch made exceptionally difficult for batsmen by rain, England could score only 76 for nine; Leyland scored 17 of those runs In the second innings, he scored a century In all first class games on the tour, he scored 902 runs at 50.11; he was unsuccessful in three games the team played in New Zealand on completion of the main tour. Early in the season, he took eight for 63 against Hampshire, the best figures of his career. Coming in to bat at number three, Leyland shared a partnership of 382 with Len Hutton, at the time a record English Test partnership for any wicket; and the highest for any wicket against Australia. As there was no time limit on the match, Leyland batted very cautiously and scored 187 in around six and a half hours before he was run out. Hutton went on to score 364, at the time the highest score in Tests. In 1939, the last season before the Second World War, Leyland scored 1,238 runs at 39.93 and took 23 wickets. and was later commissioned as lieutenant. Between his army duties, he played cricket in the Bradford League, but in the following two seasons, he appeared in some end of season first class games. when he became chief coach, along with Arthur Mitchell, at Yorkshire. Mitchell was a dour, serious man but the contrast with the cheerier Leyland made an effective partnership. In 1949, he was among the first group of former professional cricketers to be awarded honorary membership of the MCC. His use of the cut shot was mistrusted by some Yorkshire critics, and they suspected that his preference for attacking play would be unsuccessful; Opposing bowlers suggested that the impression was an illusion and that his bat was straight when he hit the ball. He was a good driver of the ball, with a high backlift, and moved quickly and economically to reach the pitch of the ball. At times, Leyland's desire to score quickly brought about his dismissal. His first class batting figures were not exceptional compared to other cricketers who played far fewer Test matches, but in Tests, his average is six runs an innings higher; against Australia, the strongest of England's opponents during his career, he averaged 56, a further increase of ten runs. The writer R. C. Robertson Glasgow suggested that Leyland in a Test match was like the "four squarers of ancient or romantic times. He was Horatius on the tottering bridge; Hector, who alone stood between Troy and destruction. He was born to rescue. But he is more dangerous than those who are stubborn or grim. He has something of D'Artagnan in him; there is a gaiety besides the simplicity and strength; seen in the slight list of the cap, and in a certain jauntiness and optimism of gait." Although he did not have to face top class fast bowling in Test matches, he was successful against English fast bowlers such as Harold Larwood in county cricket, and he established his ascendancy over O'Reilly, On one occasion, O'Reilly held his head in his hands when he saw Leyland come out to bat, and was heard to say: "Oh, it's that bloody Yorkshireman again!" The cricket historian David Frith points out that "the answer is nine times in 16 Tests, but with decreasing frequency. In their Test encounters Leyland made 1,412 runs at an average of 56." Leyland was noted as a humorist in his playing days; many stories are associated with him, although some are probably apocryphal. He told stories against himself. Another time, he described how he faced an over from O'Reilly, as related in his obituary in The Cricketer: "'First he bowled me an off break, then he bowled me a leg break; then his googly, then a bumper, then one that went with his arm ' 'But that's only five, Maurice. What about the last one?' 'Oh, that,' said Maurice deprecatingly. 'That was a straight 'un and it bowled me.'" Among his team mates, Leyland was known as "Tonnip", or "Turnip", possibly a reference to his country upbringing. Robertson Glasgow and Cardus wrote prolifically on Leyland; Gibson suggests that these pieces are among their best work. Leyland was popular with team mates, opponents and spectators around the world. Swanton concluded his obituary of Leyland: "No more courageous or determined cricketer ever buckled on pads for England."