Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

71 James MacLaren was ambitious for the cricketing future of his seven sons and consulted Hornby, who advised him to send them to his old school, Harrow. MacLaren’s money soon ran out but not before the second boy, Archie, had benefited from the coaching at Harrow. Archie was to become an even finer batsman than Hornby. MacLaren was Harrow’s star player and made his Lancashire debut at Hove on 14 August, 1890. Hornby asked him where he usually fielded and the young man, rather full of himself, replied ‘Oh, anywhere except point,’ – where, of course, Hornby put him for the rest of the innings. Despite, or perhaps because of, that incident, MacLaren had great respect for Hornby and in some ways modelled himself on him. In 1890 and 1891 Hornby led Lancashire to second place behind Surrey, after which he was appointed joint captain with Sydney Crosfield. In 1894 Archie MacLaren took over as skipper and Hornby became president of the club. It had been a successful and far from uneventful fourteen years. Lancashire had been runners-up five times in seven years, and in 1897 they at last won the Championship. They were indisputably the leading county for the first time since 1881. MacLaren stood down temporarily in 1897 and 1898, and so, appropriately, the 50-year-old Hornby led the Red Rose triumph. His way of captaining a side did not always meet with the approval of some of the players, and those running the family business in Blackburn were said to have been relieved that he did not remain there. He had no head for business. and it is certainly true that his natural management style was outdated in industry, even in the 1870s. Like a number of young men from well-to-do families he found a place on the sporting field in which he could use his ability and expend his energy without causing any damage to the family business. On balance it was to Lancashire’s advantage, and was also of benefit to both codes of football. A great competitor Boundary lines were brought in as a result of Hornby’s energetic fielding. W.G.Grace recalls in his Cricketing Reminiscences and Personal Recollections , 1899: There were no fixed boundaries at Lord’s when I first played there. If a ball struck the pavilion railings a four was allowed – The Boss