Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

13 Initially, though, the Ashes were referred to half-jokingly when Ivo Bligh toured Australia in 1882/83 and the Australian media caught on to the term. But in the 20 years following Bligh’s tour, which resulted in a 2-1 Test series win for England, the term largely disappeared from the cricketing lexicon – in both Australia and England. However, the concept of the Ashes was resuscitated when Australian all-rounder George Giffen, in his memoirs, With Bat and Ball , published in 1898, used the term as if it were well known to all. It gained its real renaissance when Pelham Warner took a team Down Under in 1903 and vowed to regain the Ashes. The Australian media wasn’t slow to latch on to the concept and this time it stuck. Having fulfilled his promise to win back the mythical Ashes, Warner published How We Recovered the Ashes in 1905 although strangely enough the origins of the term are not referred to in the text. Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack caught up with the term in the same year. Hornby’s elevation to the England captaincy came after 15 seasons of first-class cricket and three years after his only previous Test appearance in the ten-wicket defeat by Australia in Melbourne in January 1879. Two days before the Kennington Oval epic, Hornby had featured in Lancashire’s home game against Middlesex. Hornby captained the side to victory by an innings and 271 runs. The first day’s play was abandoned through rain. Hornby made only 11 with Lancashire’s top scorer Walter Robinson hitting 101. Hornby must have travelled down to London with his county colleague Dick Barlow on the Sunday. They were joined in the Test side by another Lancashire man, Allan Steel, who played in only seven first-class matches for Lancashire in that season, whereas Hornby and Barlow played in 20 each. Hornby was to play only one further Test, in 1884, also against Australia at Old Trafford, a match which ended in a draw after rain washed out the first day of the three-day fixture. Once again, he captained the side. Thus his record as England captain was poor – one defeat and a draw in his two matches in charge. In all, in his three Test appearances, Hornby failed to do himself justice with the bat, scoring two and four in Melbourne, two and nine at The Oval and nought and four in front of his own The Ashes are born