Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

83 died at the age of 51 he was buried at Blackburn with his funeral expenses being paid for by Lancashire – a sad postscript to a sad story. Even with the throwing controversy settled, albeit unsatisfactorily, Kent and Lancashire did not meet at Tonbridge that August. With Crossland banned and Nash no longer around, Hornby was delighted that Lancashire were able to unearth another bowler, the slow left-armer, Johnny Briggs, who turned out to be one of the greatest in the club’s history. But while Briggs was a straight swap for Nash as it were, there was still a fast-bowling vacancy to be filled. In stepped a remarkable character, Bennett Hudson, who Lancashire hoped would fit the bill. Hudson was a Yorkshireman with long experience of league cricket and qualified for Lancashire by virtue of his engagement as a professional with Bacup and Longsight. The Sheffield-born man had played three matches for Yorkshire without much success. He scored a handful of runs and didn’t bowl in any of his games for the White Rose county so it must have required a giant leap of faith, mixed with a hint of desperation, for Lancashire to take him on six years after his final Yorkshire appearance. But he duly made an impressive debut in the 1886 season – although he excelled with the bat and not the ball. He scored 98 against Sussex followed by 85 against Oxford University, a whirlwind innings that contained sixteen boundaries. Hornby was so excited by this performance that he awarded Hudson his county cap, hurling the coveted head gear through the pavilion window! Unfortunately, Hudson’s bowling didn’t impress Hornby or the Lancashire committee and after five games, in which he managed only three wickets, he returned from whence he came, playing regularly in league cricket for Burnley between 1887 and 1890. Arthur Mold When he felt the opposition was bending the rules, Hornby was never slow to react. It usually took the form of refusing to carry on with the game. There was one such a moment in the game against Essex at Leyton in August 1897. The two counties had previously played six friendly games and one first-class one, all of which Lancashire had won, but this was the first time they had met in a first-class match at Leyton. Both teams were Championship The Crossland and Mold throwing controversies