July 14, 1873 – When Albert Hornby scored ten runs in a single delivery

Lancashire toured London in the 1873 season to face Surrey in the County Championship match at The Oval. The Surrey team was going through a rough patch as they lost all the five County games they played before hosting Lancashire in the match starting on July 14th. The Lancashire wasn’t much ahead of Surrey as they lost three of the four matches played till then.

Lancashire’s lone win came against Surrey only during the match at the Old Trafford which the Lancs won by an innings and 113 runs. The visiting team won the toss and decided to bat first but failed to get going. They lost the wicket of opener Dick Barlow who was run out before the first run was scored. James Southerton ran through the Lancashire with a 6-wicket haul and bundled them out for only 100.

10 runs in a single ball!

Albert Hornby, the other opening batsman of Surrey, turned out to be the top run-getter of the Surrey innings with the 20 runs he scored. Out of those 20 runs, Hornby yielded ten runs on a single delivery itself. He struck a delivery from James Street towards the long-on region and ran ten runs by the time ball was dead. According to some match reports, there were as many as three overthrows contributing to Hornby’s 10 runs off a ball.

The fielder who first collected the ball, threw it past the wicket-keeper and raced towards the third-man region. Hornby and his partner Frank Wright ran three runs initially and ran for three more runs on the overthrow. In the meantime, the ball collected at the third-man position was to be returned to the bowler. But instead, the ball deviated after bouncing on the pitch and reached the boundary (Exact details are unconfirmed).

This one ball contributed 50% to Hornby’s first-innings score and also 10% of Lancashire’s total of 100. Albert Hornby thus became the first player to score 10 runs on a single delivery in first-class cricket. His feat was replicated only by Samuel Wood of Derbyshire at the Lord’s during the 1900 season match against the MCC team. The ten runs scored by Samuel on a single ball was aided by two overthrows.

A low-scoring match!

Surrey, in reply to Lancashire’s 100, were bowled out for just 33 as none of their batsmen reached double digits. Alexander Watson and William McIntyre picked up five and four wickets respectively. Southerton took six wickets yet again as Lancashire were bowled out for 115 by losing their last eight wickets for only 35 runs. Surrey returned to batting on the final day with a target 183 after the second day’s play was washed out.

Things didn’t improve for the home team who found themselves at 27/7 as none of their top seven reached double digits. They were eventually rattled for 76 as McIntyre picked up seven wickets while Watson claimed three wickets. The pair of McIntyre and Watson were the only bowlers used by Lancashire during their 106-run victory as they bowled 40 overs apiece in the match.