Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

He opened the batting on each occasion, scoring 19 and 27 in the two games, both of which Harrow won by an innings. At that time Hornby was 5ft 3in and is said to have weighed a mere 6st ‘bat and all’. His schoolmates nicknamed him ‘Monkey’ because of his diminutive stature and boundless energy. Although in later years he grew to about 5ft 7in, which was average height for the time, his soubriquet remained with him for the rest of his life. Hornby spent a brief period at Oxford University, but wasn’t cut out to be an academic – he preferred scorebooks to textbooks – and soon returned to the family business. It was said that the family was relieved that Hornby, uninterested in a business career, didn’t stay at Brookhouse Mill for long. It is surprising that Hornby played for the Gentlemen of England against Oxford and Cambridge Universities Past and Present at Kennington Oval in June 1874, as Hornby’s team was supposed to be selected from those ‘who had not been educated at the Universities’, whereas Hornby had spent a short time at Oxford. Presumably, Hornby’s short stint in the city of dreaming spires didn’t qualify as an education. In Volume Eight of Frederick Lillywhite’s Scores and Biographies , Arthur Haygarth painted this picture of the emerging Hornby: Few cricketers have appeared on the ‘tented field’ that are more distinguished than the subject of this notice. He is a most brilliant and punishing hitter, his scores in the great contests of the day being very large. His fielding is magnificent, generally taking long leg or cover point and though a right-hand bat he bowls right and left, using both hands (though he does not excel in this department of the game), being an ambidexter [sic]. His style is beautiful and his forward play grand, getting well over the ball. The East Lancashire Cricket Club It was in his post-Harrovian days, that Hornby honed his skills playing for East Lancashire, a Blackburn-based club which was established as a private venture for the benefit of the officers of the 2 nd East Lancashire Volunteers Regiment and members of the gentry. The Hornbys most definitely belonged to this latter level of society and Albert’s father donated £500 – probably more than 23 Born with a silver spoon