Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

105 only 13 in the visitors’ second innings before he was caught off the bowling of Barks by Thomas Whatmough, the Stockport professional who appeared twice for Lancashire. Grace, however, was allowed to come in again when the United South team had reached 77 for eight. The newspaper added that the crowd, reckoned to be 6,000-plus, ‘showed their appreciation [of the decision] by a hearty round of applause’. Stockport managed to grass Grace four times as he went on to compile 133. Basically, the game finished when Grace was finally out. It is not known whether Hornby was captaining the local team although he may well have been and would, therefore, have been complicit in allowing Grace’s return to the crease. ***** QUICK finishes appeared to be a Hornby speciality as he played in five matches scheduled for three days which ended in one. Interestingly, four of the games were played in the month of May. The matches were Oxford University v MCC at Magdalen Ground, Oxford in May 1877; MCC v Australians at Lord’s in May 1878; MCC v Lancashire at Lord’s in May 1886 (the game ended on the second day after no play was possible on the first); North v South at Lord’s in May 1887; and Lancashire v Surrey at Old Trafford in August 1888. However, Hornby missed out on playing in two other one-day finishes, the Lancashire v Somerset fixtures of 1892 and 1894. The first of those matches produced the joint lowest all-out total in first class-cricket. In 1877 Oxford University managed just 12 in their first innings, with only seven scoring shots. In defence of the students, six of them were making their first-class debuts, while another failed to turn up in time to bat in the innings although he opened in the second innings. Hornby and his opening partner, Isaac Walker, put on 51 for MCC’s first wicket, four more than the university side managed in their two completed innings. The game, scheduled for three days, was over on the first day. Northamptonshire gained an unwanted share of the record when they were also dismissed for 12 by Gloucestershire in 1907. ***** HORNBY played in one tied match, the Gentlemen v Players fixture at The Oval in June 1883, but missed the Surrey v Lancashire match of 1894 that also ended in a tie. ***** The Record That Never Was, and Other Fascinatng Facts