When Lord Harris was struck across the back by a stick during the Sydney Riot of 8 February 1879, his Lancashire team-mate A.N. 'Monkey' Hornby — five foot six but indomitable — seized the assailant in the crowd and frog-marched him through the throng to the pavilion, taking blows the whole way. The incident is one of cricket's most famous physical interventions by a player.
Hornby had earned his nickname 'Monkey' at Harrow School for his small size and energy. He was already the captain of Lancashire and the hardest tackler in the England rugby team.
Hornby was fielding near the pavilion side of the boundary when the crowd invaded. He saw the blow land on Lord Harris's back.
Hornby was 32, the captain of Lancashire and one of the great athletes of Victorian England. He was small (5ft 6in) and stocky but was a champion sprinter and footballer who would go on to captain England in both cricket and rugby. When the Sydney crowd invaded the field after Coulthard gave Murdoch run out, Hornby — fielding nearby — saw a man strike Lord Harris with what was variously described as a stick or whip. He ran into the crowd, seized the assailant (a Sydney man named Reed), and dragged him through the press of bodies to the pavilion. He took several blows on the way and his shirt was torn off his back. Reed was eventually handed to police. Hornby refused to give a statement to the press; Lord Harris's open letter the following month named him as 'the man who saved the day'. The bystanders' violence subsided once Hornby's intervention restored order on the field. Tom Horan reported that the Australian players themselves were astonished by his coolness.
Coulthard gives Murdoch run out
Crowd invades pitch
Lord Harris struck across back with stick
Hornby identifies assailant in crowd
Drags him through throng to pavilion, taking blows
Shirt torn off; assailant handed to police
8 Feb 1879 PM
Crowd invades Association Ground
Same minute
Lord Harris struck on back
Same minute
Hornby seizes assailant in crowd
Following 5 minutes
Drags him to pavilion through blows
Half-hour later
Play resumes with order restored
“Hornby seized the man and brought him through the crowd to the pavilion.”
Hornby refused press interviews on the matter and never publicly discussed the incident. He played in the 1880 and 1882 home Tests, captained England at the 1882 Oval Test, and remained Lancashire's chairman until 1898.
The most physical act of leadership by a cricketer in a crowd disorder. Hornby — five foot six and a sprinter — restored order alone.
Hornby's intervention is the most-cited example in cricket of a player physically restoring order during a crowd disturbance. It is also the moment that cemented his reputation as the toughest cricketer of his era — the basis for Francis Thompson's later poem 'At Lord's' (1907) and its line 'O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago!'
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On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.
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1981-12-12
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