Cricket 1883

o €t Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— B y r o n . Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1883. p r i c e 2d. A L B E R T N E IL SON H ORNBY . I t may safely be said, and without in any way depreciating the efforts of other prominent players, that no cricketer has ever more justly earned universal popularity than the amateur whose portrait we are able to present this week. For nearly twenty years Mr. A. N. Hornby has been before the cricket world as the most inde­ fatigable of all players, as well as the most zealous supporter of the truest interests of the game, and the best and most liberal of friends to those of his associates who have had to get their living at cricket. Mr. Hornby’s association of late years with Cheshire has conduced to the belief that he was born within its limits, but this idea is not correct, as he first saw the lightjno Feb. 10, 1847, at Blackburn, Lancashire, a town in which his father has still very large business connections. His elder brothers were all educated at Harrow School, and Mr. A. N. Horn­ by’s first appearance in public as a cricketer was as one of the Harrow Eleven, at Lord’s, in 1864. He was then, strange as it may appear to those who know his powerful and muscular frame, perhaps the smallest boy that has ever played in a Public School Eleven, and it is said that at the time he was not only but 5ft. 3 inches in height, but weighed, bat and ball, under 6 stones. “ Little Hornby,” though, made his mark at once at Lord’s, and, despite that he only contributed 19, the Harrow Captain, M. H. Stow, and he put on 60 runs before the first wicket fell. In 1865 his defence was again of great service to Harrow, and the coolness and precision of his fielding will still be vividly remembered by those who can recal the incidents of that match. Unfortunately he did not go up to either University, and for the next few years his name figures mostly in second-rate matches, with the result of some long scores, notably his 201 for Cheshire against Staffordshire, in 1868. It was not until 1869 that he became identified with Lancashire, and his first season only found him three times in the eleven of the Palatinate. Lancashire cricket, then, was not so well sup- j ported as it is now, and the programme was only a scanty one. Only four matches were played by the County, but Mr. Hornby partici­ pated in all of these, and his six innings pro­ duced 232, of which 132 were made in one hand against Hampshire, at Southampton. In the same year of 1870 he made 163 for the Gentle­ men of the North, in the memorable match at Beeston, with the Gentlemen of the South, when 1,114 runs were scored for 31 wickets, end, during that season, it is recorded that he totalled 2,017 runs in 34 innings, with no less than eight scores of over a hundred runs. His first appearance for the Gentlemen against the Play­ ers, at Lord’s, in 1869, had not been a success, but in 1871 and 1872 he made amends, and in the latter year, at the Oval, with Mr. W. G. Grace, | he raised the score from 37 for one to 213 for two wickets. At the end of 1872 he visited America and Canada with Mr. R A. Fitzgerald’s team of Amateurs, and the excellence of his all­ round cricket contributed much to their success. In 1873, for the Gentlemen against the Players, at Prince’s, he scored 104, and in the same matches of the two succeeding years, at Lord’s, he was again very successful. In 1876 he had an aggregate of 965 runs for thirty-three in­ nings in first-class matches, and the following season gave him, perhaps, the best score ever recorded to him, to wit—his 144 for the Gentlemen against the Players, at the Oval. Some long scores were attached to his name during the visit of Lord Harris' team to Austra­ lia, at the end of 1877, but it will suffice to record his highesfTnis 101 against 22 of Bendigo.. Mr. Hornby’s best show in 1878—not one of his most propitious years—was his 100for Lancashire against Gloucestershire, but his whole energy- had been, for some time past, expended on the improvement of Lancashire cricket, and its development is in every way due to his untiring exertions and the force of his example. He did not play for England against Australia, at the Oval, in the memorable match of 1880, but he was in good run-gettingform that year, and someofhis innings,notably his 126 against Surrey, and his 71 for the Gentlemen against the Players, at the Oval, were excellent displays. The fol­ lowing season (1881) was one of the best Mr. Hornby has ever had. His scoring for Lancashire was consistently high, and airong his best feats with the bat were his 188 and 145 against Derbyshire, and his 102 against Kent. In 1881, in first-class matches, he had the highest aggregate with 1,531 runs for 37 innings, and in 1S82, though hardly quite as successful, he was again well to the fore in the same kind of contests with 1,383 runs for 53 innings. In the match against Middlesex, this season, Mr. Hornby and Barlow scored 180 for the first wicket, and of these Mr. Hornby made 131 in as many minutes. Space prevents us entering into any de­ tailed recapitulation of Mr. Hornby’s perform-