Sydney Barnes

Did You Know?

• Outside cricket, Barnes worked as a clerk in a Staffordshire colliery until 1914, and later at Staffordshire County Council, where he became skilful in calligraphy.
• In 1957, he was asked to present a handwritten scroll to Elizabeth II to commemorate her visit to Stafford.

Cricket career

Barnes began playing at age fifteen in 1888 for a small club behind the Galton Hotel in Smethwick. He soon joined Smethwick Cricket Club, where Billy Bird, the professional who had played for Warwickshire, taught him to bowl off spin; Barnes then taught himself leg spin. By the start of the 1893 season he was in the first team of the Birmingham and District Premier League. In 1894, at 21, he was asked to join the Staffordshire ground staff but declined the terms.

Instead he joined Rishton Cricket Club in the Lancashire League, where pay was better due to match bonuses and collections. He played for Rishton until 1899. Later in 1894 he was invited to play for Warwickshire, making his first-class debut against Gloucestershire on 23 August, though he did not take the field because of rain. He played only three more matches for Warwickshire, taking three wickets in total.

From 1895 to 1899 he played mostly for Rishton, taking 411 wickets in 38 appearances; his best season was 1898 with 96 wickets at 8.46. At Rishton he reduced his pace to medium fast and experimented with spin. He later played for Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Championship from 1904 to 1914 and again from 1924 to 1935, and for Saltaire Cricket Club in the Bradford League from 1915 to 1923.

Approach and technique

Sydney Barnes bowled with relentless attacking purpose, forcing batsmen to play at almost every delivery while constantly varying his approach. He could make the ball swing or spin in either direction, and his pace ranged from medium to fast, though he mostly operated at fast-medium. His leg-breaks were delivered at speed without any wrist rotation; the spin came entirely from the twist of his long fingers. Fielders stationed at mid-off and mid-on could hear his fingers snap as he released the ball, and batsmen could not tell which way it would break.

Standing over six feet tall, Barnes had an upright posture, broad shoulders, a deep chest, long arms, and strong legs. He bowled right-arm fast-medium but also possessed the accuracy, spin, and craft of a slow bowler. His high release point gave the ball extra bounce, forcing even the best batsmen to play at an uncomfortable height. He was skilled at hiding his pace, mixing in deliveries that were noticeably faster or slower than his usual speed, and he could bowl a sharp yorker.

Barnes saw himself primarily as a spin bowler, since he bowled both off-breaks and leg-breaks at a fast pace. Beyond his technical ability, he brought a hostile attitude and great endurance, constantly searching for a batsman’s weakness and attacking it with surprise, each ball fitting into a tactical plan. In his time, a single ball was used for an entire innings, with no new ball available, though uncovered pitches added unpredictability. Harry Altham noted that even in fine weather on true Australian wickets, Barnes could swing and break the ball from both sides at well above medium pace, and his most dangerous delivery came from wide on the crease, swinging late across the wicket before straightening off the pitch to hit the off stump.

Bernard Hollowood’s father, who captained Barnes for Staffordshire, said he took his wickets with fast leg-breaks, always landing on a length.

Personality

Neville Cardus described Barnes as not an easy man to handle on the field, noting a Mephistophelian aspect about him because he did not play cricket out of any green field starry-eyed idealism. Cardus said Barnes was a hostile, attacking bowler who always made the batsman play the ball. Barnes himself said he never gave batsmen any rest. Cardus called him relentless and said he blew a chill wind of antagonism, but that he mellowed in full age and retirement.

Awards and tributes

In 1963, Neville Cardus picked Barnes for Wisden's "Six Giants of the Wisden Century," a group that also included Don Bradman, W. G. Grace, Jack Hobbs, Tom Richardson, and Victor Trumper. Later that year, John Arlott wrote in The Cricketer that those who saw Barnes play considered him the greatest bowler ever. Barnes's retrospective ICC rating of 932 after the 1913/14 series, published in 2008, remains the highest ever. He became an inaugural member of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009. For Wisden's 150th anniversary, he was chosen for an all-time Test World XI.