Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

36 The Hornby-Barlow partnership begins In Hornby’s obituary, published on 18 December 1925 and which was probably written by Neville Cardus, the Manchester Guardian described Hornby and Barlow as ‘a Don Quixote and Sancho Panza of the game. The one ready to tilt at windmills in high romance, the other content to go his shrewd, thrifty way and bide his time, knowing well that before the day was out he would come by his own little island of runs’. Barlow’s obituary showed just how much his alliance with Hornby improved the former’s marquee value, stating: In the ordinary way he [Barlow] was not a batsman one would have journeyed ten miles to see, but when he opened a Lancashire innings - as he did hundreds of times - with Mr Hornby, he became a figure of extreme interest. His defence and his captain’s brilliancy formed a combination fascinating to all lovers of cricket.  In fact, the pairing of Hornby and Barlow at the start of the innings became enshrined in cricketing folklore when Preston- born Francis Thompson penned his much quoted poem, At Lord’s. Thompson wrote: It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though my own red roses there may blow; It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though the red roses crest the caps, I know. For the field is full of shades as I near a shadowy coast, And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost, And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host As the run stealers flicker to and fro, To and fro: O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago! It’s Glo’ster coming North, the irresistible, The Shire of the Graces, long ago! It’s Gloucestershire up North, the irresistible, And new-risen Lancashire the foe! A Shire so young that has scarce impressed its traces, Ah, how shall it stand before all-resistless Graces? O, little red rose, their bats are as maces To beat thee down, this summer long ago! This day of seventy-eight they are come up north against thee This day of seventy-eight long ago! The champion of the centuries he cometh up against thee, With his brethren, every one a famous foe!