Horsham’s historic Ashes Test cricketer

The men’s Ashes Test series is drawing to a close.

But did you know a Horsham cricketer played in the first tour of Australia that included two Test matches?

Harry Charlwood, born in Horsham in 1846, was a top-order batsman and occasional lob-bowler (underarm) for Sussex. His highest score for the county was 123 (1876).

Not surprisingly, he was chosen for the James Lillywhite tour of 1876/77 of Australia and New Zealand (which retrospectively was classified as the first Test cricket tour of Australia by an English team).

He scored 63 runs in the two matches against the Aussies and didn’t bowl. Lillywhite’s XI won both matches by an innings.

However, there’s no happy ending. On returning to England Harry’s first-class career faded somewhat as he moved to Derbyshire and then Scarborough.

He eventually became a pub landlord and died, aged just 41, in 1888.