Maurice William Tate
(30 May 1895 in Brighton
– 18 May 1956 in Wadhurst
) was a Sussex and England cricketer
of the 1920s and 1930s and the leader of England's Test
bowling attack for a long time during this period. He was also the first Sussex cricketer to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.
The son of Sussex off spinner Fred Tate
and nicknamed "Chubby", Maurice began his career for Sussex as a hard-hitting batsman and spin bowler with one match in 1912. He played a few matches in 1913 and 1914, but established himself as a batsman in 1919 by scoring over a thousand runs for the first of eleven consecutive seasons. In the following two years, Tate's batting developed further with a double hundred against Northamptonshire in 1921 representing his highest first class score. However, his bowling remained secondary throughout this period.
In 1922 Tate had, aided by some very poor batting sides, enjoyed more success as a bowler than in previous years. However, in a famous incident at practice with his captain Arthur Gilligan
, he bowled a faster ball, and it scattered the stumps.
This led to the famous quote "Maurice, you must change your style of bowling immediately"
. From then on Tate developed as a tireless fast-medium bowler and the founder of modern seam bowling
. Though not exceptionally fast through the air, Tate gave... Read More