Norman Frederick Horner was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

er, who played two games for Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....

 in 1950, before moving to Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...

 in 1951. A right-handed batsman, he made 18,533 runs at 29.79, in his 363 game career, before retiring in 1965 to work in landscape gardening and as a cricket groundsman

Groundskeeping

Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes; typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that more than 900,000 workers are employed...

.

Born in Queensbury, West Yorkshire

Queensbury, West Yorkshire

Queensbury is a village in the metropolitan borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Perched on a high vantage point above Clayton and Thornton and overlooking Bradford itself, Queensbury is one of the highest parishes in England, with fine views beyond the West Yorkshire conurbation to the...

, Horner was a neat, dapper batsman, who formed a powerful opening partnership with Fred Gardner

Fred Gardner (cricketer)

Fred Charles Gardner was an English cricketer and footballer. He was a right-hand opening batsman who played for Warwickshire.-Football career:...

, and scored a thousand runs in every season up to 1964. M.J.K. Smith commented that "Norman would have run Fred's legs off him if he had been allowed". He went down the order in 1958, when the MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 asked Warwickshire to promote Smith to develop him for a possible England opening spot. Horner scored quickly, and enjoyed his best three seasons from 1959 to 1961. On a flat Oval

The Oval

The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

 pitch in 1960 he scored a career-best 203 not out, and put on 377 with Billy Ibadulla for the first wicket on the first day, then the highest unbroken opening partnership in cricket history. He was quick in the covers and took 130 catches. He retired in 1965 to concentrate on landscape gardening and his work as a groundsman.

Horner died in Driffield

Driffield

Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield....

, Yorkshire in December 2003, at the age of 77.

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