Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

30 Chapter Three Voyage of discovery 1 The Monkey went in and caused much amusement by stealing runs – Robert Allan Fitzgerald With his reputation becoming more lustrous by the match, it was in the autumn of 1872 when MCC secretary Robert Allan Fitzgerald was asked to put together an amateur side to visit North America, that Hornby was invited along with W.G.Grace. Others called on by Fitzgerald included the Hon G.R.C. (later Lord) Harris and Hornby’s Lancashire team-mate Arthur Appleby. On 8 August they left Liverpool aboard the S.S.Sarmatian , owned by the local Allan Line. It was a lengthy journey and along the way meals played an important role in relieving the monotony of life on board. Breakfast was at 8 am, lunch was served at 12 noon, followed by dinner at 4 pm, tea at 7 pm and grog was available from 9 pm. As Fitzgerald, author of the seminal work, Wickets in the West (also known as The Twelve in America ), wrote: ‘Starvation has a bad time of it on board!’ Icebergs were seen on 15 August and during the 2,656-mile journey, which took nine days and one a half hours, whales were also spotted at sea. In between the regular breaks for food and drink and the spotting of icebergs and marine life, there was a general air of boredom among those on board. So in an effort to avoid cabin fever, the players organised games of ‘shovelboard’ (sometimes called shuffleboard) and the more obscure pastime of ‘ringing the pig’. Hornby devised his own boredom-beater, while the vessel lay at anchor off Greencastle, which involved jumping over as many deck chairs as he could. From one chair, the obstacle course rose eventually to five and who knows where it may have led but for the fact that Hornby, normally a surefooted hurdler, landed on his little toe and partially dislocated it, which put an end to his participation in this particular sport! The Sarmatian arrived at Quebec on 17 August and, three days