lastagainst testdebutagainst deliveries death_date lastdate debutyear columns testdebutfor family testcap catches/stumpings year birth_date bowling debutagainst tenfor country lasttestfor death_place club fivefor batting image name lasttestyear fullname debutfor birth_place column international debutdate nickname role testdebutdate lasttestagainst type source lastyear runs date testdebutyear wickets lasttestdate lastfor s/s matches article_title
new south wales england balls 373 2044 16 april 1916 26 december 1874 2 australia james bernard horan -lrb- son -rrb- francis horan -lrb- son -rrb- , thomas ignatius 8 6/0 39/0 1874 & ndash ; 1891 1877 8 march 1854 right-arm roundarm new south wales 0 0 australia australia malvern , victoria , australia victoria 1 2 right-hand tom_horan_2 . jpg tom horan 1885 thomas patrick horan victoria midleton , county cork , ireland tests fc true 26 december felix -lrb- pen name -rrb- middle-order batsman 15 march england first class http://www.cricketarchive.com/archive/players/0/13/13.html cricket archive 1891 471 4027 1854 3 8 yes 1877 11 35 21 march victoria 1/1 8/12 15 106 tom horan

tom horan

thomas patrick horan -lrb- 8 march 1854 -- 16 april 1916 -rrb- was an australian cricketer who played for victoria and australia , and later became an esteemed cricket journalist under the pen name `` felix '' .
the first of only two irish-born players to play test cricket for australia , horan was the leading batsman in the colony of victoria during the pioneering years of international cricket .
he played for australia in the game against england subsequently designated as the first test match , before touring england with the first representative australian team , in 1878 .
four years later , he toured england for the second time and played in the famed ashes test match at the oval .
an aggressive middle-order batsman renowned for his leg-side play , horan supplemented his batting by bowling medium-pace in the roundarm style common to his era , and once captured six wickets in a test match innings .
during a season disrupted by financial disputes and a strike by leading players , he captained australia in two test matches of the 1884 -- 85 ashes series , but lost both games .
horan 's form peaked between the ages of 26 and 29 when he scored seven of his eight first-class centuries , including a score of 124 in a test match on his home ground at melbourne in january 1882 .
in 1879 , horan began writing a weekly newspaper column that continued until his death 37 years later .
he established himself as the first australian cricket writer who had played the game at the highest level , thus paving the way for many players to enter the media .
bill o'reilly , the noted australian player-writer of the twentieth century , described him as , `` the cricket writer `` par excellence '' '' .
horan 's documentation of the early years of australian cricket are the basis for many works on the subject : gideon haigh wrote that any , `` serious scholar in the field ... should probably acquaint himself with tom horan . ''
an anthology of his articles was published for the first time in 1989 when he was posthumously inducted into the sport australia hall of fame for his writing .
in part , his citation read , '' ... it was as the first nationally known cricket writer that he made his major contribution to the game . ''
