Ashes Heroes No 34: Sydney Barnes

With the score standing 9-7 to Australia in the first 16 weeks of our Ashes Heroes series, it's time to give another Englishman a go. This time, it's a fast-medium bowler with one of the most astounding records ever seen. If this list was just done on statistics (it is in part) then Sydney Barnes would be a lot higher, but as part of my ranking system is also based on the weekly top tens that our guest writers contribute, the distance of time counts against him. Still, read on and be impressed.

According to the ICC all-time rankings, S.F. Barnes is the greatest bowler who ever lived. Or rather, he achieved the highest number of ranking points in their system, which reflects his dominance over the opposition between 1910 and 1914. (Interestingly, while Don Bradman is naturally the highest ranked batsman, the next in line are Hutton, Hobbs, Ponting and May, who might not have been so easily predicted).

Let's get the awesome statistics out of the way first. In 27 Tests from 1901-14, he took 189 wickets at an average of 16.43. His wickets came at a rate of one every seven overs, the second deadliest of any bowler to take more than 75 wickets. Against South Africa in 1913-14, he took 49 Test wickets in four matches, including match figures of 17 for 159 at Johannesburg in the second Test. Only Jim Laker, with 19 at Old Trafford in 1956, has taken more wickets in a Test. In fact, in seven Tests against South Africa, Barnes took six ten-wicket match hauls. In 20 Tests against Australia, he did it only once but his overall record against the Aussies puts most bowlers to shame.

Barnes had the ability to make the ball move in ways that others of the day couldn't. He could swing it very late, both in and out, and was adept at varying the pace with off and leg-cutters, getting many of his wickets with the latter. His deadliest delivery was sent from wide on the crease, swerved in the width of the wicket and then, thanks to a flick of his finger, straightened to hit off stump. Clem Hill, the great Australian batsman of the day, described one ball to him pitching outside leg stump and then "before I could pick up my bat, my off stump was knocked silly".

Barnes is the only cricketer to be selected by England while playing league, rather than county cricket. The story goes that he was playing in the Lancashire leagues when Archie MacLaren, the England captain who had heard of his skill, invited him for a net at Old Trafford in 1901. Barnes, then already 28 years old, roughed up MacLaren, hitting him on the left thigh and then getting the ball to rear sharply and whack his gloves. The bowler, embarrassed at hurting the England captain, apologised, only to be told: "Don't be sorry, Barnes. You're coming to Australia with me." He was soon on the boat Down Under.

In the first Test of that series, Barnes took five for 65 as England won by an innings. In the second Test, he took six for 42 and seven for 121, but Australia, who had been 48 for five in their second innings, recovered to 233 for nine and then, astoundingly, to 353 all out to set up a win. Barnes, his legs exhausted from bowling 64 overs in the second innings, was able to bowl only seven overs in the third Test and missed the rest of the series.

He took six for 49 in his one Test of the summer of 1902, but it would be five more years before Barnes was called up again. By this stage, after brief spells with Warwickshire and Lancashire, he had turned his back on county cricket after a contractual dispute. Instead, he played minor county cricket with Staffordshire, taking almost 1,500 wickets for them over the rest of his career at an average of 8.15. His average in league cricket was even more unbelievable: 4,000 wickets at just over six runs apiece.

No wonder he was soon summoned back into the England team. On the 1907-08 Ashes Tour, he took 24 wickets, the pick being seven for 60 in the final Test at Sydney. But he was not part of a strong side and England were beaten 4-1. He played three Tests in the 1909 series, again lost, and took 18 wickets.

It was in the 1911-12 Ashes that he really made his mark. The side that Johnny Douglas, an Olympic boxing gold medal-winner three years earlier, captained in Australia is regarded as one of the strongest England teams to be sent to Australia, with Hobbs and Rhodes opening, Mead, Hearne, Gunn and Woolley in the middle order, and bowlers of the calibre of Barnes, Foster and the captain himself. They won back the Ashes 4-1, with Barnes taking 34 wickets.

His most impressive feat was undoubtedly his opening spell in the second Test at Melbourne, regarded as one of the most devastating in Test history. England had lost the first Test, with Barnes sulking at being made first change, and he had a fever before the second match, which may have made Douglas think about picking him. The captain's hunch to restore Barnes to sharing the new ball with Foster paid off: Barnes took five wickets for six runs as Australia slumped to 11 for four and then 38 for six. They lost the Test and, shortly, the series.

Barnes was not an easy man to get on with, let alone face, which was one reason for his absence from 1902-07. His demanour was aloof and he did not mix well even with his team-mates. His decision to shun county cricket no doubt alienated many. Yet he outlasted all his contemporaries, both in terms of career and lifespan. Barnes's final hurrah was that 1914 series in South Africa and no doubt if war hadn't intervened he would have taken many more than 200 Test wickets. He played first-class cricket until he was 57 and in the previous year he took 76 wickets at 8.21 for Staffordshire.

Having been rejected by England as too old after the war (he was 45), Barnes offered his services instead to Wales. In three years as a Welshman, he took 49 wickets including match figures of 12 for 118 against the West Indies in 1928, when he was 55. His philosophy was always to make the batsmen think. "Why do these bowlers today send down so many balls the batsman needn't play?" was his lament in later life. "I didn't. I never gave them any rest."

He died in 1967 at the age of 94.

Comments

[David Wijekoon-Perera]

If statistics are only part of the criteria used in this exercise, I really do fear for some of the great Ashes players. After all, this bowler was an all-time great yet is reduced to the status as one who also played. Apart from his wickets, there were his skills. He managed 49 wickets in four Tests in South Africa 1913-14, and those game were played on matting, and where his duel with Herbie Taylor were legendary. He missed the last one because arrangements didn’t include his wife. I know this is a feature that is about selection of the best Ashes players, but it makes me really wonder if the selection panel didn’t put a list on names on the dart board and hoped for the best.
There were some amazing people who played cricket before World War 1, the captain of that 1913-14 side, Johnny Won’t Hit Today (JWHT) Douglas is one of them and who drowned while trying to save his father.
My genuine fear is that a particular great Ashes captain will end up being similarly treated as has Barnes.

[SouthernWaratah]

..and why do I get the feeling he wouldn't have been happy with "only" living to 94!

[Peter McGuinness]

I have always marvelled at the very interesting coincidence that one of Australia's greatest ever players - and the prototype for the hard hitting, aggressive opener of later eras - was Sidney Barnes. Had it not been for his teammate Bradman, Sid would be the historical household name world-wide that he is in Australia.

If your surname was Barnes and you wanted your son to play Test Cricket, it would take long to decide on a name would it?

[Innocent Abroad]

I presume the ICC rankings are some nerd's idea of a joke.

Ken Higgs at #54, Frank Tyson at #90? There must be a fair few (if doddery) batsmen still alive who've faced them both, and I bet you a magnum of champers to a bottle of Perrier (or would, except that I never bet) you can't find one who would prefer to face Tyson rather than Higgs.