71 Facts About Maurice Leyland

Maurice Leyland was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938.

Maurice Leyland 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.

Maurice Leyland remained in the side until 1930, but a loss of form in the next two seasons called his place into question.

Maurice Leyland held his place until 1938 when he was replaced in the team by younger batsmen for the series against Australia.

Maurice Leyland maintained his connection with Yorkshire, and served as the county coach between 1950 and 1963.

Maurice Leyland 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.

Maurice Leyland was born on 20 July 1900 in Bilton, an area of Harrogate, to Mercy and Edward Maurice Leyland.

Maurice Leyland was registered at birth as Morris Leyland but his name was usually spelt "Maurice".

Maurice Leyland's father was a stonemason and a well-respected professional cricketer for Moorside in Lancashire.

Maurice Leyland senior acted as Moorside's groundsman, and in later years continued that role at Harrogate, Headingley Cricket Ground and Edgbaston.

Maurice Leyland junior joined his father in the Moorside team in 1912, and by the age of fourteen had graduated to the Lancashire League.

Late in the 1920 season, Maurice Leyland made his first-class debut for Yorkshire, having played several times in the second team that summer.

Maurice Leyland played once, against Essex, scoring ten runs in his only innings, but this was his sole appearance that year.

Maurice Leyland had never previously attended a County Championship game.

Maurice 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.

Maurice Leyland further improved his record in 1925, hitting 1,572 runs at 40.30.

Shortly after returning from India, Maurice Leyland married Constance Russell in Harrogate on 29 March 1928.

Maurice Leyland 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.

Maurice Leyland scored 1,783 runs at an average of 54.03, and scored another double century.

Maurice 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.

Maurice Leyland's 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 Maurice Leyland was a "cross bat village-greener".

Pelham Warner, a selector at the time, claimed that Maurice 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.

Maurice Leyland was selected for the last of the three Test matches.

The MCC team which toured Australia was extremely strong in batting, and Maurice Leyland served as back-up to the main batsmen.

Maurice Leyland scored 137, his first Test century, and 53 not out.

Maurice Leyland scored 1,931 runs at 42.91 in 1929, and took 50 first-class wickets in the season at an average of 30.26.

Against Lancashire, in a match which Rhodes missed with injury, Maurice Leyland took the role of the main spinner and returned figures of seven wickets for 52 runs.

Maurice Leyland did not play in the first two matches of the 1930 Ashes series; Woolley replaced him in the team but was unsuccessful and Maurice Leyland came in for the final three games.

At the time, Yorkshire v Lancashire matches were mainly dour, slow-scoring affairs, but Maurice Leyland played freely to score 211 not out in around 270 minutes.

Maurice Leyland hit two sixes in one over, and, according to Cardus, played "great and beautiful cricket".

Maurice Leyland played for the Players against the Gentlemen, but was not selected for any of the Tests in the three-match series between England and New Zealand.

At the beginning of the 1932 season, Maurice Leyland continued to struggle.

Maurice Leyland faced little of the bowling, later remembering that he received only four deliveries in this period, hitting each for four.

Maurice Leyland scored 306 runs in the five Test matches at an average of 34.00; he began and ended the series with scores of 0, but played innings of 83 and 86 in the decisive third and fourth Test matches, with his team under pressure when he batted.

The former Australian batsmen Charlie Macartney suggested that, although "a useful player", Maurice Leyland was hindered by his defensive approach.

The West Indies team toured England that season, but Maurice Leyland played only in the first Test; he scored one run in his single innings.

Maurice Leyland scored over 2,000 first-class runs in 1934, at an average of 53.55.

At the time, O'Reilly was regarded as the best bowler in the world, and among the greatest of all time, but Maurice Leyland began a spell of relative dominance over him.

Maurice Leyland 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.

Maurice Leyland played three Tests but scored only 36 runs in six innings.

Maurice Leyland scored 1,815 runs at an average of 38.61 in 1935 and took 32 wickets at 25.46.

Maurice Leyland played in four of the five Tests against South Africa, missing the third with lumbago, to score 342 runs at 57.00.

Maurice Leyland hit seven centuries, including an innings of 263 runs against Essex in the season, the highest first-class score of his career.

Maurice Leyland played in two of the three Tests against India that season but only batted twice.

Maurice Leyland was one of the few batsmen excused: "Maurice Leyland, though very restrained, was one of the mainstays of the batting".

Maurice Leyland played an effective defensive innings in the second innings, and another in the second Test, when he was criticised for slow scoring.

Maurice Leyland missed a substantial amount of cricket in 1937 with a broken finger, barely playing in July, and missing the Test series against New Zealand.

Maurice Leyland scored 1,306 runs at 36.27 and took 19 wickets.

Maurice Leyland scored 1,884 first-class runs at 43.81, but a shoulder strain early in the season adversely affected his form.

Maurice Leyland was not selected for the first three Tests against Australia, not least as the England side contained several promising batsmen.

Just as his batting form returned, and when he was likely to be recalled to the England side, Maurice Leyland broke his thumb in a match against Middlesex.

Maurice Leyland's innings was his highest in Tests, but this was his final match for England.

In 1939, the last season before the Second World War, Maurice Leyland scored 1,238 runs at 39.93 and took 23 wickets.

Maurice Leyland served in the army during the war: first as a sergeant instructor, and was later commissioned as lieutenant.

Maurice Leyland ended his first-class career in 1948 with 33,660 runs at 40.50 and 466 wickets at 29.31.

Mitchell was a dour, serious man but the contrast with the cheerier Maurice Leyland made an effective partnership.

Maurice Leyland served as a representative of the paper manufacturers Thomas Owen.

Maurice Leyland continued as a respected coach of Yorkshire until illness forced his retirement in 1963.

Maurice Leyland died in a hospital at Knaresborough on 1 January 1967.

Maurice Leyland's use of the cut shot was mistrusted by some Yorkshire critics, and they suspected that his preference for attacking play would be unsuccessful; he was a faster scorer and more aggressive batsman than most of his Yorkshire contemporaries.

Swanton observed that Maurice Leyland's bat was often not straight when he played his shots, contrary to orthodox technique, but the speed of his footwork and his ability to watch the ball closely made up for any lapses.

Maurice Leyland was Horatius on the tottering bridge; Hector, who alone stood between Troy and destruction.

Maurice Leyland 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.

Maurice Leyland would disappear into the haze of Bramall Lane, where a sterner sort of game was being played under the name of cricket, and entrench himself among the sawdust and smoke and off-breaks and appeals, and do his raw, tough work in silence.

Maurice Leyland was regarded by critics as a good fielder in almost any position.

Maurice Leyland did not take bowling seriously, but enjoyed it.

Maurice Leyland was noted as a humorist in his playing days; many stories are associated with him, although some are probably apocryphal.

Maurice Leyland ruefully commented: "You know, I don't get much practice against that stuff".

Robertson-Glasgow and Cardus wrote prolifically on Maurice Leyland; Gibson suggests that these pieces are among their best work.

Maurice Leyland was popular with team-mates, opponents and spectators around the world.