Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

32 There was more amusement when the team played a two-day match against Hamilton, where the tourists arrived after a four- hour journey on the Great Western Railway, which had begun operations 19 years earlier. By the second day the weather had deteriorated with the tourists hoping to finish the game before nightfall as they wanted to visit Niagara Falls. By 5.20 pm, the light was diminishing with the shadows growing longer by the minute. Playing against 22, the tourists, who fielded twelve men themselves, had reduced the home side to 43 for ten. ‘The moon now rose,’ recalled Fitzgerald, ‘and an occasional cloud passing over the moon enabled the batsmen to steal runs. ‘The spectators, now much amused, encroached considerably upon the wickets. ‘The Englishmen now crouched upon the ground to get a sight of the ball, Hornby lying at full length, and the excitement was at its height, the last man being in, and darkness imminent. The last wicket fell to an uncompromising sneak. It was skittles rather than cricket.’ According to Alfred Gibson, reminiscing in the Windsor Magazine in 1897, it was so difficult to see through the murk that Hornby even lit a candle in the slips! Fitzgerald’s side finally wrapped up victory by an innings and 16 runs. But despite their efforts, it wasn’t until the following day that the touring party set out to visit Niagara, where they were much taken by its ‘majestic beauty and sheer grandeur’. The St George’s Club New Ground in Hoboken, New York was the next port of call, where Fitzgerald reported: ‘The Monkey was in luck, and as free as his native wilds. He skied one of Greig’s [deliveries] which Harry Wright carefully and deliberately dropped, to the disgust of the spectators – his 18 was very quickly if fortunately obtained.’ Only two of the home side’s batsmen reached double figures in their two innings and Fitzgerald’s side secured another innings victory. On 21 September the tourists drew a crowd estimated at 7,000 to their game against Philadelphia. At the end of the match, which Fitzgerald’s side won by four wickets ‘the crowd collected around Voyage of discovery 1