Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

74 The North fared even worse in their only completed innings, being dismissed for 34. Unfortunately, rain washed out the last of the scheduled three days and the match ended in a draw with the North on 15 for one, needing 40 more to win. Surrey were on the wrong end of a Hornby outburst in 1888 when Lancashire travelled to The Oval in August for their penultimate game of the season. Prior to the start one of the Surrey officials took Hornby into the pavilion to show off a plate that would commemorate the side’s unbeaten run. Unsurprisingly, Hornby was furious and immediately after the visitors had secured a nine-wicket win, thanks in the main to a brilliant 184 from Joseph Eccles, he stormed into the committee room and smashed the plate on the table, saying, ‘What do you think of your blasted plate now?’ A bowlers’ captain Bowlers must have relished playing under Hornby as he was captaining Lancashire when George Nash took four in four balls against Somerset at Old Trafford in June 1882 and again when Arthur Mold performed a similar feat against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in June 1895. He was also leading the side when Alexander Watson took three- in-three against Kent at Castleton Cricket Club Ground, Rochdale in June 1876 and when John Crossland did the same in the match against Surrey at The Oval in August 1881. Hornby was also skippering Lancashire against Derbyshire at Derby in June 1881 when Dick Barlow completed a hat-trick, and when he repeated the trick in August 1886 against Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford. Hornby was also playing, although Edmund Rowley captained the side, when Barlow achieved the first hat-trick of his career against Derbyshire at Old Trafford in June 1879. Hornby was in Lord Harris’s XI when George Ulyett took four in four balls against New South Wales at Sydney in February 1879. How many captains have had two four-in-four balls and four hat-tricks under their leadership and played in two games where a team-mate took a hat-trick and another four in four? Hornby also featured in the Lancashire match against Hampshire at Old Trafford in July 1870 in which William Hickton returned figures of ten for 46, which remain the best in the county’s history, and was captaining the side when Arthur Appleby took nine for 25 against Sussex at Hove in August 1877. The Boss