Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

38 The pairing of Hornby and Barlow was a classic case of opposites attracting, with Hornby in the role of Thompson’s run-stealer and Barlow the obdurate, almost immoveable, object. Showing that nostalgia is nothing new, the Manchester Guardian reported: The cricket played could not have been surpassed, even in those palmy days to which veterans still look back with real or affected regret. The ‘opposition’ of two such stars as Mr Hornby and Mr Grace was worth going far to see … [Hornby] gave the spectators another proof that for skilful, hard, determined hitting, and for dexterity in stealing runs, he had only one rival on the ground … His drives were a treat to witness, made with extraordinary force, but always keeping the ball down, and never giving the ghost of a chance … It’s worth noting that in about 95 minutes Gloucestershire bowled 52 four-ball overs. So although the over-rate was far higher than today’s, the actual rate of scoring wasn’t. Thompson’s poem carries uncanny echoes of the Manchester Guardian article. It’s hard to imagine that the writer had it to hand as he was penning his words, but perhaps he had read it and it was buried deep in his subconscious. At Lord’s is the ultimate piece of Golden Age cricket nostalgia, yet all is not as it seems. Shortly before his death and some 25 years after he had watched Hornby and Barlow bat at Old Trafford, Thompson was invited to watch Lancashire play Middlesex at Lord’s. As the day of the match grew closer, he became increasingly more nostalgic. In the end Thompson did not go to the game but sat at home and wrote his poem, which had nothing to do with Lord’s – neither he nor the match he describes was there! And events on the final day could not have been further removed from our image of cricket’s Golden Age. With the Grace brothers a major attraction and Hornby and Barlow going well, there was a huge crowd on hand. It grew further when working people left their factories and offices for their Saturday half-holiday. But it all turned nasty when some sections of the 18,000-strong crowd demonstrated against what they thought were inadequate arrangements for spectators. Around 2,000 had rushed the turnstiles and got into the ground for nothing and, in their anger, some of them wrenched sods of the Old Trafford turf out of the The Hornby-Barlow partnership begins