Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

68 Chapter Seven The Boss Having full confidence of his own opinions, Mr Hornby was the finest skipper I have seen - W.E.Howard There is no doubt that Hornby was one of the great captains in Lancashire’s history, but what is in question is exactly how many seasons he led the side. Some sources say Hornby was in charge for the period 1869-1899, but that isn’t the case. After painstaking research, using CricketArchive and Scores and Biographies , it is probable that he led the side – either as sole captain or in a shared or stand-in role – for 19 of the 33 years he played for the county. Edmund Rowley, who was present at the meeting at the Queen’s Hotel in Manchester on 12 January 1864 when the Lancashire county club was formed, was the official captain between 1866 and 1879. But throughout the 1870s Hornby was called upon to lead Lancashire in Rowley’s absence. He captained in 23 of the 26 games he played between 1876 and 1878, and no captain is recorded for one of the other three games. It was therefore no surprise that when Rowley retired at the end of 1879, Hornby was appointed captain. As Eric Midwinter put it in his book Red Roses Crest the Caps : ‘If Edmund Rowley was the Joseph of Lancashire cricket, dreaming dreams of possible deliverance and glory, Albert Hornby was its Moses.’ Hornby was certainly the official club captain between 1880 and 1891 and again in 1897 and 1898, which adds up to 14 years. He was also joint-captain with Sydney Crosfield in 1892 and 1893. By 1881 the number of first-class matches played by the county had risen to fourteen and in this year Hornby became the first Lancashire batsman in its then 17-year history to score 1,000 runs in a season (at an average of 50.10), beating the four-figure mark by just two runs. Hornby’s reputation was growing. As a letter writer to the Manchester Guardian stated : For a number of years he has played in nearly all matches. He has always played well.