Maurice Tate
With Sussex opening the County Season yesterday with a mini league format against Lancashire I thought of an encounter in 1927 between the Red Rose county and Sussex which John Arlott cites in his appreciation of Maurice Tate in his Book of Cricketers.
In 1927 Lancashire was the most formidable county and on the cusp of winning the Championship when they came to the Saffrons Ground at Eastbourne.
They were twice dismissed for under 100 and in the second innings Tate took six wickets.
He took 2,700 wickets for Sussex and scored 27,000 runs. What would he be worth today in the IPL ?
However the figures do not tell the whole story.
In 1930 the invincible Aussies of Don Bradman came to Hove.
Bradman did not bat but Tate removed six Aussie batters before lunch.
It is said that only the umpire did not hear the snick that would have included Alan Kippax in his haul.
Tate made his England debut late and was the wrong side of Douglas Jardine who preferred Bill Voce and Harold Larwood. Better late than never and better than his father Fred Tate’s debut against Joe Darling’s Aussies.
He dropped a dolly off Darling who went on to make his century. However on the Bodyline tour Tate took the wicket of Don Bradnan.
I don’t suppose that there is anyone still alive who saw Maurice Tate who died in 1958.
Yet his legend lives on at Sussex. After Sussex won their first Championship in 2003 he was chosen in a poll as Sussex’s greatest player ahead of Mushy Ahmed, Imran Khan, Ranji and Ted Dexter and the gates before the Pavilion are named after him.
