Maurice Leyland

Maurice Leyland

Maurice Leyland was an English international cricketer. He played 41 Test matches for England between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire between 1920 and 1946. He was a left-handed middle-order batsman and occasional left-arm spinner. He died in 1967 and was the county coach between 1950 and 1963.

About Maurice Leyland in brief

Summary Maurice LeylandMaurice Leyland was an English international cricketer. He played 41 Test matches for England between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire between 1920 and 1946. He was a left-handed middle-order batsman and occasional left-arm spinner. Leyland died in 1967 and was the county coach between 1950 and 1963. He had a reputation for batting well under pressure. He may have invented the name to describe his wrist-spin deliveries –“chinamen”. He was born on 20 July 1900 in Bilton, Harrogate, to Mercy and Edward Leyland. His father was a stonemason and a well-respected professional cricketers for Moorside in Lancashire. He joined his father in 1912, and by the age of 14 had graduated to the Lancashires League. After military service in the First World War, he became a professional criceter for Harrogates between 1918 and 1920. He also played football for the local club. He made his Yorkshire debut in 1920, and was a regular member of the team from 1923. In the 1922 season, he played more regularly, replacing Norman Kilner in the team. Although critics judged him to have great potential, Leyland played regularly in the 1923 season and reached 1,000 runs in the first class season. His highest score in 14 matches was 29, but he was awarded his county cap in 1923. He retired from international cricket in 1946 after serving in the Second World War. His last match was his last match for Yorkshire in 1946, and he was later a coach for the county.

He died on 17 July 1967 in Edgbaston, near Leeds, in a car accident. He is buried in Harrogated, near his home in the Yorkshire Dales, where he was a keen cricket fan. His son, Peter, was also a cricket fan, and played for Yorkshire until the 1980s. He has a son, Paul, who played for the Yorkshire second team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a daughter, Charlotte, who was a first-team batsman for Yorkshire from the late 1970s until the early 1980s, when she moved to the University of Cambridge. He never played for England again after the death of his father, Edward, in 1968. He later became a cricket coach for Yorkshire. He won the Wisden Cricketer of the Year award in 1929 and was awarded a knighthood in the same year. His final match was for Yorkshire against Leicestershire in the County Championship in 1946. His batting record is better than his first- class figures, and against Australia his average is even higher than his Test batting figures. He performed most effectively against the best teams and bowlers, and in difficult situations. 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 bowled infrequently in his first seasons, but when he reached the first team, he bowled regularly for Yorkshire’s second team.