Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

9 The Ashes are born of Surrey County Cricket Club. After a brief examination he was pronounced to have died from a congestion of the lungs accelerated by the bursting of a blood vessel. Spofforth’s match figures of fourteen for 90 were not bettered by an Australian until the unlikely figure of Bob Massie came along to take sixteen for 137 on his Test debut against England at Lord’s 90 years later. But was the Oval result such a surprise? It was a strong touring side and they won 24 of their 28 matches, beating all the major counties and were successful in two of their three fixtures against representative sides. Despite presiding over the home side’s loss, Hornby received the plaudits for his intelligent deployment of the England attack and his thoughtful field settings. The Times stated: ‘Mr Hornby seemed to know the bowling which would most baffle the batsmen and varied it accordingly, while he altered the disposition of the field with great judgement.’ In fact, on the same day that England were crashing to defeat against the Australians, the Manchester Evening News , in a review of the Lancashire county season thus far, had this to say about Hornby: ‘As captain he has discharged his duties with excellent judgement. He always plays up well and inspirits (sic) the team and to him in no small degree is owing our present position of supremacy.’ At this stage of the season, Lancashire, under Hornby’s stewardship, had won seven of their eight fixtures. The ‘half-term report’ also referred to Hornby’s ‘brilliant and certain fielding [that] sets an example which all endeavour to emulate but none surpass’. But despite praise for Hornby’s captaincy skills and his ability and agility in the field, Charles Pardon, who covered the Australian tour for Bell’s Life and whose writings were later re-published in book form as Australians in England , felt that Hornby ‘was not quite good enough to be in the [England] eleven’. ‘I cannot see what form he has ever shown against Australian bowling in this country to justify his selection,’ Pardon added rather caustically. But he did say that Hornby had taken part in ‘the best bit of fielding in the match’ when the English captain teamed up with Charles Studd and wicket-keeper Lyttelton to run out Murdoch, who was attempting a third run. Hornby also drew praise from Australia’s County Cork-born