‘A most gamely contested match …’

Martin Chandler | 9:18am GMT 17 November 2024

Published: 2024
Pages: 12
Author: Tebay, Martin
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 3.5 stars

In a series of monographs bearing the title Notable Lancashire victories in 19th century cricket any Lancashire supporter is going to look forward to a title in the series where the vanquished are the Red Rose’s greatest rivals, Yorkshire.

And it is the third in the series that is the first to deal with a ‘Roses’ match. The first odd feature of the match concerned, to 21st century eyes anyway, is that the match was played at the Fartown Ground in Huddersfield, a venue that last staged a First Class fixture almost seventy years ago.

Another surprise is to learn that this one was the Yorkists’ sixth fixture of the 1889 county season, and they had lost all of the previous five. With four wins out of six to their credit I suppose it must be the case that even playing away Lancashire must have started as favourites.

In the event Lancashire, led by ‘Monkey’ Hornby, were all but out of the match at the end of the first day. At that point they were 22-4 in their second innings having been dismissed for 81 in their first knock after choosing to bat. Yorkshire had made 160.

Largely thanks to Johnny Briggs Lancashire got to 153 next day, leaving the home side a modest target of 75. The good work continued as Yorkshire slumped to 38-7, before rallying to 71-8, at which point their last two wickets fell to give Lancashire a three run victory.

In the manner of these mongraphs Martin Tebay sets the scene in his introduction, reconstructs the match from contemporary reports and ends with the scorecard of the match. I dare say that most of the 20 individally signed and numbered copies will end up with Lancashire supporters, but anyone with an interest in the era will enjoy this one. As always it can be purchased directly from the publisher or, for those on the other side of the world, from Roger Page in Melbourne.