Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

92 Chapter Ten A Lancashire legend is laid to rest The spirit of the game has never been warmer and more lovable than it was when the breeze that was Hornby blew over Old Trafford – Manchester Guardian obituary Hornby visited Old Trafford for the opening match of the 1924 season against Derbyshire, sitting in an invalid chair by the side of the pitch. Well wrapped up, and wearing a hat with Lancashire’s colours on it, to counter the early-season chill, he was back at the scene of some of his greatest triumphs. In his youth he had rarely worn a cap as he scampered singles, re-arranged his field or showed his prowess in the deep, taking countless catches. But now, 76 years of age, and almost immobile, he cut a disconsolate figure. It was to be his last visit to Old Trafford and nineteen months later – on 17 December 1925 – Hornby passed away at the age of 78 at his home in Parkfield. The cause of death was given as ‘senile decay’ and ‘cardiac failure’. But the Nantwich Chronicle decided that ‘Mr Hornby just fell asleep’. So three weeks after the Lancashire annual meeting, the man who had steered the course of the county’s cricket for five decades, was dead. The cortege left Parkfield, watched by two of Hornby’s horses, as it wended its way to Acton Parish Church, followed by a lengthy procession of cars. According to the Liverpool Banner ‘the crowd was so large that only mourners, personal and hunting friends, deputations of cricketers and civic bodies were able to find room in the church during the first part of the funeral service’. The mourners, standing bare-headed in the rain, overflowed into the churchyard during the church service, and later, crowded round the graveside where the committal service was recited by a former Rugby international, the Reverend F.O.Poole. It was a case of Ashes to ashes as Hornby was laid to rest.