Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

66 of club cricketers from New York and Philadelphia. Only seven of the tourists played and Harris wasn’t among them, so Hornby captained the side. The numbers were made up by four local English-born players including George Lane, a Nottinghamshire man who was working as the professional at Staten Island C.C. In the home side’s second innings Hornby took two wickets, bowling unchanged with Lane. The Englishmen won by an innings and 114 runs. Two days later the tired tourists were on board the White Star Line’s S.S.Baltic for the long journey home. ***** Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth appeared to have the Indian sign over Hornby. But he might not have become the scourge of England’s batsmen for ten years from 1877 to 1887 but for his first sight, as a ten-year-old boy, of England’s fearsome fast bowler George Tarrant on his tour Down Under in 1863/4. Ten years later he saw the slow bowling of James Southerton and the medium pace of Alfred Shaw when they were touring with W.G.Grace, and resolved to combine the styles of all three men. He was unleashed Voyage of discovery 2 Fred Spofforth was arguably Australia’s finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century, and usually proved too good for Hornby.