Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

11 9 September issue: Well done, Cornstalks! Whipt us Fair and square, Was it luck that tript us? Was it scare? Kangaroo Land’s “Demon”, or our own Want of “devil”, coolness, nerve, backbone? The final sentence of Alcock’s lamentation was a reference to Ted Peate, the England slow left-armer and No. 11, who came to the crease with England needing just ten runs for victory. Peate succumbed for only two and the match was lost. He arrived back in the dressing-room to be admonished for not having left the job of scoring the vital runs needed for victory to his partner, Studd. Rather perversely Peate explained: ‘Ah weren’t afeard for mesen. Ah were afeard for Meester Studd. Ah knew Ah could play old Spoff.’ Nearly fifty years later, Rev Robert Hindle reminisced in a letter to The Times : ‘It was said that Mr Studd sat [in the committee room before going out to bat] with three sweaters on and shook with nervousness. As a result Mr Hornby kept him back with the result that all the wickets were down before Mr Studd received a ball, and the match was lost by seven runs.’ Charles Thomas Studd was certainly not a rabbit and had batted at No. 6 in the first innings where he was bowled third ball by Spofforth for nought. But notwithstanding that failure he was fairly reliable with the bat. He played in five Tests for his country, averaging 20 with a highest score of 48 and appeared 34 times for Middlesex where his average rose to 28.20 with one century and four fifties. In 1926, Studd had told Rev Hindle, rather defensively it might be thought: ‘I see from a newspaper that they now declare that I asked Hornby not to let me go in. Of course, that is without the shadow of a foundation in fact. The only truth of the whole matter as stated is that the weather was cold and we sat in the committee room with the windows closed because of the cold.’ Studd added: Hornby, on his own account, began to alter the order of going in. I believe he did ask me if I minded, and I said ‘no’. Then things began to change and the procession began. Hornby told The Ashes are born