Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

78 to be selected to play for England against Australia. In the end, he wasn’t chosen, and it was rumoured that the Australians would have objected to his selection had his name been put forward. At the start of the 1883 season, Lord Harris was again vociferous in his condemnation of bowlers – without mentioning anyone by name – who were breaking Law 10 which states that ‘the ball must be bowled. If thrown or jerked, the umpire shall call “no-ball”’. Harris claimed this rule was being flouted time and again. The 1883 season saw the introduction of ‘neutral’ umpires, and when Crossland and Nash bowled in the opening match of the season against Derbyshire at Old Trafford there was a collective intake of breath among the spectators until their first, crucial overs had been completed. Surprisingly, Crossland wasn’t called on by Hornby until Derbyshire followed on, taking four for 21. Nash, whose action was also coming under closer scrutiny and who was also a target of Lord Harris in his attempts to rid the game of bowlers he considered to be throwers, opened the bowling in Derbyshire’s first innings. He ended with figures of five for 24 and added three for 47, again opening the bowling, in the second innings as Lancashire completed an easy innings victory. In the end, both men bowled without incident. However, confrontation was not far away and it duly arrived – along with Kent and Lord Harris – when Lancashire hosted their southern rivals. But no exception was taken to Crossland’s bowling – he took six of the last seven wickets as Kent crashed from 280 for 3 to 309 all out, Lord Harris scoring 118. In the end Lancashire scored a famous victory with Hornby man of the match with innings of 88 and 96. But there was a further test ahead for Crossland and Nash when MCC hosted Lancashire at Lord’s. It appeared that Lancashire’s ‘terrible twins’ Crossland and Nash had modified their actions for this game and neither was called into question by the umpires. It looked as though the controversy had died down when the return game against Kent was played at Gravesend in late August. Crossland was virtually unplayable in the Kent second innings, taking four wickets in 26 balls and including Lord Harris among his victims. But a few days later, the return with Surrey at The Oval brought another flashpoint – and once again Hornby backed Crossland to The Crossland and Mold throwing controversies