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 Australia – a controversial decision as he replaced the famous batsman Frank Woolley – and 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. Leyland senior also acted as Moorside's groundsman, and in later years continued that role at Harrogate, Headingley Cricket Ground and Edgbaston. Leyland junior joined his father in the Moorside team in 1912, and by the age of fourteen had graduated to the Lancashire League. After army service in the First World War, he became a professional cricketer for Harrogate between 1918 and 1920. From there he made appearances for the Yorkshire Council, and Yorkshire's second team, for whom he bowled regularly; when he reached the first team, he bowled infrequently in his first seasons. Around this time, he also played football for Harrogate.
During the early 1920s, the Yorkshire committee was attempting to find players to replace those whose careers had ended with the First World War. Late in the 1920 season, Leyland made his first-class debut for Yorkshire, having played several times in the second team that summer. He played once, against Essex, scoring ten runs in his only innings, but this was his sole appearance that year. He had never previously attended a County Championship game. The following year, Leyland played in five first-team matches, scoring 52 not out against Leicestershire, averaging just over 19 for the season. 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, but he was awarded his county cap, and critics within Yorkshire judged him to have great potential.
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. In 1923, he scored seven fifties and averaged 27.89; Wisden suggested that he would become a leading left-handed batsman and that "his future seems assured". In his history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Anthony Woodhouse states that Leyland gained valuable experience as part of a successful batting side. 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. In August, he scored his first century in first-class cricket, hitting 133 not out in a drawn game against Lancashire; later in the month, he scored another century. Leyland further improved his record in 1925, hitting 1,572 runs at 40.30. Wisden commented: "Leyland still further increased the big reputation he had made in the previous summer and ought, if all goes well with him, to attain the highest distinction." By the end of the 1926 season, in which he scored 1,561 runs at 39.02 and hit five centuries, Leyland had established himself as one of the most reliable batsmen in the Yorkshire team.
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, and, against Middlesex, scored his first double-century. Wisden suggested that he "was not so dependable as could have been desired", but batted in an entertaining fashion. 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. In the winter of 1927–28, Leyland once more coached in India for the Maharajah of Patiala.
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."
Test debut and selection for Australian tour
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. With a weakened bowling attack, and affected by injuries and loss of form, Yorkshire pressed Leyland into service as an occasional bowler in the 1928 season. 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. Having never bowled 50 first-class overs in a previous season, nor taken more than four wickets, he bowled more than 500 overs in 1928 and took 35 wickets at an average of 34.20. At this stage, the Yorkshire authorities thought that he might fully take on Kilner's bowling workload, or succeed Rhodes in the senior spinner's position.