Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

76 Chapter Eight The Crossland and Mold throwing controversies That in playing Lancashire, the Lancashire men shall not be allowed to use bats, but only broom handles – Christmas card sent by Lancashire to Nottinghamshire Loyalty to his players was paramount as far as Hornby was concerned and nowhere was it more clearly defined than in the controversies that engulfed fast bowler John Crossland and slow left-armer George Nash, and later another fast bowler, Arthur Mold. John Crossland and George Nash Crossland was only a peripheral figure in the Lancashire side during the 1881 season, playing just seven games and taking only thirteen wickets, ten of them in one game. Nash, meanwhile, had played his first game for Lancashire two years earlier and went on to take 200 wickets for the county. It was not until 1882 that Crossland’s action was called into question and there was a concerted campaign to have him banned from the game. But it was four, often acrimonious, years before Crossland was finally chucked out of cricket. Ironically, it wasn’t for throwing, it was because he was said to have failed to meet the requirements of residential qualification which was a prerequisite in that era. In that 1882 season, Crossland became, on the retirement of William McIntyre, Lancashire’s main strike bowler and towards the end of that campaign there began the first murmurings about his action. It happened in the game against Surrey at The Oval, which Crossland went into in fine form. He had taken seven wickets in the match against the Australians and Spofforth himself had gone on record as saying that Crossland was quicker than he was. Crossland had taken six for seven against Somerset on a very