Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

15 three days at Manchester and the performance of both teams are eminently worthy of the warmest praise. Mr Hornby, as captain of the Northmen, succeeded admirably. After that fateful Oval Test, Hornby’s playing career was a remarkably long one. He went on for a another 17 years until 1899 and might have stretched that even further, but was forced to pull out of what would have been his final first-class match for an England XI against the West Indians at Whitegate Park, Blackpool on 26 July, 1906, suffering from lumbago. He was replaced by Albert Peatfield, who was playing his only first-class game at the age of 32. Peatfield had, in fact, played for Glamorgan in 1903 in matches which were not considered first-class. So Hornby’s bid to sign off from first-class cricket in a relatively high-profile game was aborted almost exactly six years after his previous appearance in a major match – for Lancashire, also against West Indies, at Old Trafford in July 1900. Hornby didn’t exactly bow out in a blaze of glory in that game, scoring four in the first innings and being absent for Lancashire’s second knock in the home side’s 57-run win against the tourists who included Lebrun Constantine, father of the great Learie Constantine, later Sir Learie. Hornby had played his last Championship match in the previous season at the age of 52 – the oldest-ever Lancashire player in that competition – in the same side as his son, Albert Henry. Typically, Hornby excelled in that final, competitive fixture, scoring 53 out of a stand of 63 for the eighth wicket in 65 minutes. But although his final game against the West Indian tourists was a bit of an anti-climax, Hornby’s cricketing career was, for the most part, extremely successful. He later enjoyed similar success in his capacity as chairman and president of the club. The Ashes are born