Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

5 Chapter One The Ashes are born Well, old fellow, it would have been the proudest moment of my life to have won but I cannot help congratulating you sincerely on the splendid uphill game and your well merited success – Hornby to the Australian captain Billy Murdoch Captaining England on the second day of The Oval Test against Australia on 29 August, 1882, Albert Hornby must have thought he was well on the way to leading his side to victory. After all, England needed a mere 85 to win in their second innings and Hornby could be forgiven for thinking the match would not spill over into its third and final day. Hornby was right – the third day wasn’t required. But he was also wrong because it wasn’t England who finished the game victorious, it was the Australians. It appears the visitors were fired up by what they considered to be a piece of unsporting behaviour by the legendary W.G.Grace, who was as well known for his prowess as a cricketer as he was for his beard and win-at-all-costs attitude. A grainy but evocative image of the 1882 Oval Test in progress.