Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

97 Chapter Eleven What are we to make of him? No skipper was so genuinely appreciative of good work on the part of his men or so fearless in his unstinting efforts to win the game – A.C.MacLaren on Hornby As everyone is aware there are ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ and I accept that figures can be manipulated to give an often misleading impression. Spin doctors – and I don’t mean the likes of Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan – have been subtly adjusting figures to suit their political needs for many years. But cricket statistics, more than those for any other sport, more often than not give a true reflection of a player’s worth, particularly when the ‘sample’ is a large one. Of course, with most leading proponents of the game the final figures are garnered from a high number of appearances and that is certainly the case with Hornby. After all, his career spanned almost 33 years, 437 first-class matches and three Tests. Admittedly, he was singularly unsuccessful in those three games at international level, but in first-class games he compiled 16 centuries and 74 half-centuries for a highly respectable average of 24.07, taking into account the uncovered and often largely untreated pitches prevalent in the era during which Hornby operated. For Lancashire, he made 292 appearances, his average rising slightly to 24.25. By contrast the obdurate Dick Barlow played 249 times for Lancashire for an average of 20.43. It was a measure of his importance to the county that between 1870 and 1881 no Lancashire batsman made a century apart from Hornby, who reached three figures on seven occasions in that period. Hornby reached his zenith as a batsman in 1881 when his 1,534 runs included three tons. Twice in that year Hornby scored more runs in a single knock than Lancashire’s opponents did in two completed innings. The first instance occurred when he hit his highest first-class score, 188, against Derbyshire at Old Trafford in May. The visitors replied with all-out totals of 102 and 62 –