An Australian critic wrote the next day:
“It was a most unwarranted display against a man who had bowled magnificently. It evidenced, too, a most partisan spirit. It was confined to a hostile section in the shilling stand and such unfair treatment undoubtedly interfered with Barnes’s bowling. In his next over there was a similar outbreak by the hoodlums, but the occupants of the members’ reserve cheered him and the noisy element was quickly quelled by the counter demonstration.”
“During the tea interval, the demonstration against Barnes was universally condemned and it was suggested that the Victorian authorities should at once follow the example of the New South Wales Association and announce that they would prosecute offenders for unruly or riotous behaviour.”
Nice to see Australian press support for an England player!
Barnes had made his point to the crowd and, more importantly, he had made his point to the Australian batsmen. Hearne hit a century and Rhodes scored 61 when England batted and they established a first innings lead of 81. Foster got 6 for 91 in Australia’s second innings and there were another 3 wickets for Barnes. England only needed 219, which they reached comfortably. They lost only 2 wickets. Jack Hobbs completing the first of his twelve centuries against Australia.
England had achieved a remarkable victory against all expectations. Barnes’s opening spell when he had destroyed the Australian top order had inflicted a major psychological blow. In the next Test at Adelaide, England went 2 – 1 up, with Barnes taking another 8 wickets and Hobbs getting his highest ever Test score of 187.
Then it was back to Melbourne again. Australia were put in by Douglas and bowled out for 191 on the first day with Barnes taking 5 for 74. England then amassed 589 with a record opening partnership from Hobbs and Rhodes of 323. Johnnie Douglas showed that he too could bowl a bit by taking 5 wickets and Australia were bowled out a second time for 173. The Ashes had come home! England went on to win the last Test too and Barnes finished the series with 34 wickets. Not bad for a thirty-eight-year-old North Staffordshire League player.
The next opportunity that Barnes had to demonstrate his bowling prowess on the international stage was the Triangular Tournament in the summer of 1912. South Africa were now considered strong enough to compete with England and Australia. The ICC (the Imperial Cricket Council as it was known as then) decided to hold an international championship every four years.
The Tournament did not go well and was not repeated. First of all, the weather that summer was very poor and three of the nine Test matches had to be abandoned due to rain. Secondly, as the Daily Telegraph pointed out at the time: “Nine Tests provide a surfeit of cricket, and contests between Australia and South Africa are not a great attraction to the British public.” Finally, although England were able to field a very capable side, the other two countries were under strength.
South Africa were not the force they had been a few years earlier when they had beaten England. They still had two world class batsman in A.D. Nourse and Herbie Taylor but many of their teammates struggled in the English conditions. Australia were not able to field their best side. In a forerunner to the Packer crisis of the late 1970s, the Australian players were in dispute with the Australian Cricket Board. Six of their top players, including Clem Hill and Victor Trumper, didn’t make the trip.
England, led by C.B. Fry, won the Tournament winning four Tests and drawing the other two. Barnes continued where he had left off in Australia. He took an incredible 34 wickets in three games against South Africa. Test matches in England at the time were played over three days only. This fact, combined with the poor weather, meant that England’s first two games with Australia were draws. In the deciding match against Australia at the Oval, Barnes took 5 for 30 in the first innings off twenty-seven overs to once again blow away the Australian batsmen. This was to be a ‘timeless Test’ to ensure a result but England wrapped up victory on the fourth day.
Aside from the exploits of Sydney Barnes, the most notable incident of the series was Australia’s Jimmy Matthews taking two hat tricks in the same Test match. He got one in each innings of the opening match against South Africa. This is the only time that a bowler has taken two hat tricks in the same match in Test history, a record that seems likely to remain unbroken. Both hat tricks were taken on the same day after South Africa followed on. Amazingly, Matthews took no other wickets in the match. Another curiosity is that the third victim in each case was débutant wicket-keeper Tommy Ward. The only ‘King Pair’ achieved on début in Test cricket, an unenviable record.
In Wisden’s review of the 1912 season, Barnes was described as “the best bowler in the world.” It continued “The skill with which he broke both ways while keeping a perfect length all the time, was wonderful.” In those days, Wisden was very much part of the cricket establishment and over the years it had been reluctant to give full credit to Barnes for his achievements. Barnes’s stubbornness and his sense of self worth shine through in his every confrontation. He was the Keir Hardie of cricket, sixty years ahead of his time in his rejection of the class system that dominated the English cricket world. This naturally did not go down well with the cricket authorities. Now though, Wisden had been finally won over.
Barnes had achieved great things and all on his own terms. 140 Test wickets at an average of just under 18. A major contribution to winning the Ashes back for England. Player of the Tournament in the first ‘world championship’. There was one performance left which would confirm his divine status. The tour to South Africa in the winter of 1913/14.
With only three countries playing Test cricket, sometimes there were no Test matches during a summer and that was the case in 1913. So Barnes went back to playing for Porthill Park and Staffordshire. He did however play regularly, and with great success, in the Gentlemen v Players games. These were usually in front of full houses at Lords or the Oval and deemed by Barnes to be a fitting stage for his talents. These games may seem anachronistic nowadays but they did provide Barnes with an opportunity to play first-class cricket and he probably enjoyed putting one over the amateur gentlemen.
He reminded the cricket upper echelons of his existence by turning out for the Players XI in July that year. After taking 2 for 67 in twenty-five overs in the Gentlemen’s first innings, he took 7 for 38 in the second to help the Players to victory. That was Barnes’ only first-class game that year until September but it certainly made sure that he was not forgotten.
During September, Barnes warmed up for the tour to South Africa by playing in some representative first-class games including the Rest of England against a combined Kent and Yorkshire XI at the Oval. He bowled his team to victory with 7 for 20 in the second innings. He had taken 35 wickets in the four first-class games he played that year and had booked his place on the boat to South Africa.
In the last Test series before the First World War – there was to be no more international cricket until 1920 – Sydney Barnes, at the age of forty, set records that have still not been matched today. He did it in his own relentless, dominating style and the tour ended with a classic Barnes dénouement.
He had been to South Africa once before when he coached and played for Claremont Cricket Club in Cape Town in the winter of 1898/99. This experience and the good form that he had been in towards the end of the summer stood him in good stead at the start of the tour. He got 36 wickets in four warm up matches and was primed for the First Test at Durban.
Barnes took 5 for 57 in South Africa’s first innings with only Herbie Taylor able to play him with any confidence. Taylor scored 109 out of a final total of 182 and was the last man to be dismissed. This was the start of an epic battle between the best bowler in the world and one of the best batsmen in the world. Barnes got him cheaply in the second innings as well as four other victims and England had won the first Test.
Many years later, Barnes was asked which batsman he had found most difficult to bowl to. He replied “Victor Trumper”. When asked if there was anyone else, he retort
ed “No one else ever troubled me.” This gives a clue to the confidence, some might say arrogance, that Barnes had. He could have given Herbie Taylor a mention. In a series totally dominated by Barnes, Taylor scored over 500 runs and was the only batsman that ever looked comfortable against him.
The second and third Tests were both played at Johannesburg. Barnes produced a performance in the Second Test that is still the second best bowling figures ever achieved in Test matches: 17 wickets for 159 runs. This is what Wisden had to say:
“It was Barnes’s match. On no occasion was the great bowler seen to quite such advantage. He took 17 wickets – 8 for 56 and 9 for 103 – proving quite irresistible on the last morning.”
Wilfred Rhodes and Phil Mead scored centuries and England won by an innings and 12 runs. The Third Test was closer. South Africa were set 396 to win in the last innings and when Taylor and Zulch made 153 for the first wicket, it looked like they might do it. Barnes was made to struggle for just about the first time on the tour. After the first wicket fell, South Africa collapsed and England eventually won by 91 runs, Barnes took 5 for 102. Together with his 3 wickets from the first innings, Barnes now had 35 wickets from only three Tests.
In the tour games immediately after the Third Test, Barnes continued to take wickets. His final total of first-class wickets for the tour was 104 from just twelve games. In addition, he took another 21 wickets in two games not classified as first-class.
Around this time, he seemed to relax, or was tired or thought it was too easy and Herbie Taylor took full advantage. Barnes had a modest game against Transvaal and then, in the last game before the Fourth Test, the tourists took on Natal. Taylor scored 91 in the first innings and a century in the second, and England lost their only match of the tour. Barnes did get 5 for 44 in the first innings but only 2 for 70 in the second.
It was during this second innings that Barnes is alleged to have lost his cool. On the matting wickets of South Africa, Herbie Taylor was supreme. He had exquisite footwork and in Natal’s second innings he was playing Barnes with ease. Taylor would recount in later years that Barnes was so exasperated that he threw down the ball and refused to bowl. “It’s Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, all the time” he is reputed to have said.
Barnes later refuted these claims but, whether it was true or not, it usefully illustrates the perfectionism of the man. He could not tolerate second best in anyone, including himself. South Africa went into the Fourth Test in a positive mood. They had run England close in the previous Test. Natal had just beaten the tourists and their champion batsman had just had the better of England’s premier bowler.
Barnes now proved his greatness and responded with 7 for 56 to bowl South Africa out for 170. When it was England’s turn to bat, only Jack Hobbs coped with the home side’s attack and for the first time in the series, South Africa had a first innings lead. Taylor scored 93 in the second innings, winning another round with Barnes but England’s leading bowler had the last laugh by taking 7 for 88 to give him 14 wickets in the match. Hobbs fell just short of a century as England hung on for a draw at 154 for 5.
Barnes now had 49 wickets in the series. He already had the most number of wickets ever taken in a Test series and there was still one game to go. Having averaged over 10 wickets in each Test so far, it was reasonable to expect him to go on and set a record that would never be beaten. Immortality was within his grasp.
What Sydney Barnes did now was typical of the man and showed that he had not yet mellowed with the years. The England team arrived in Bloemfontein for the last Test. Barnes believed that the South Africans had promised him some money as a special payment for his performances. When it was not forthcoming, he was so upset that he refused to play in the Test match or again on tour.
One can imagine Johnnie Douglas, the captain, desperately trying to persuade him to play and all his entreaties falling on deaf ears. True to form, Barnes would not budge from his position. He was using the same single minded, rigorous approach to his affairs off the field that he applied to his bowling. Perhaps you can not have one without the other? It’s just a shame that Barnes could not have seen his way through to make it out onto the pitch for that last Test and who knows how many wickets he would have finished up with in the series!
One hundred years on and 49 wickets is still the record for the number of wickets in a Test series. Only four other bowlers have taken more that 40 wickets in a series. Jim Laker with 46 wickets and Charlie Grimmett with 44 have come closest but both did it in five Tests. Terry Alderman (twice) and Rodney Hogg also got more than 40 wickets in a series but each took six Tests to achieve it.
A ‘Barnesless’ England went on to win the last Test and S.F. Barnes had played his last Test match. He did in fact have another opportunity to play Test cricket. Incredibly, he was invited to go on the tour of Australia in 1920/21 at the age of forty-seven but, as ever, laid down his own terms. He wanted to take his wife and child with him, paid for of course by the MCC. He reckoned that he would be happier if they were with him on tour and therefore he would bowl better. Needless to say, the authorities did not acquiesce to this request, even for the great S.F. Barnes, and so the last opportunity to add to his 189 Test wickets was gone.
Although he didn’t play any more Test cricket after 1914, Barnes carried on playing league and Minor Counties cricket for another quarter of a century. Luckily for him, the best bowler in the world was deemed too old to be called up and sent to the trenches. He left Porthill Park somewhat acrimoniously after the Chairman had promised to ‘look after’ him come what may. Seemingly, Barnes did not think that the outbreak of the First World War was a good enough reason for him to break his word!
Barnes joined Saltaire in the Bradford League. He rewarded them over the next nine years with 904 wickets at an average of just over 5 runs per wicket. Extraordinary figures for anyone let alone a man in his forties. He then moved to the Central Lancashire League for seven years, playing for Casteleton Moor and later Rochdale, again averaging 100 wickets a season.
In 1931, he returned to the Lancashire League and played three seasons for Rawtenstall. He continued playing professional league cricket up to 1940 when he was contracted to play for Stone in the North Staffordshire & South Cheshire League. He began playing cricket before the Boer War started and finished during the early years of the Second World War. He was unique.
In 1929, at the age of fifty-six, he played for a Minor Counties XI against the touring South Africans. He bowled unchanged for three hours taking 8 for 41 in thirty-two overs. At lunch, Barnes had taken 2 wickets and a local enthusiast offered him £25 if he took all the remaining wickets in the innings. One of the South Africans had retired ill but when the last man came in, Barnes had taken all eight wickets to fall. He then marked a cross on the turf and instructed Jack Meyer, the Somerset amateur, to stand there. Barnes bowled and the ball duly came off the South African No.11’s bat straight into and then out of Meyer’s hands. Barnes glared, glowered, muttered and cursed. What he said when Meyer proceeded to clean bowl the Springbok No 10 with the first ball of his own next over was never recorded.
To celebrate the centenary of Wisden in 1963, Neville Cardus was asked to select ‘Six Giants of the Wisden Century’. He chose W.G. Grace, Tom Richardson, Victor Trumper, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman and ………… Sydney Barnes. The Staffordshire League player, turned down by Warwickshire and rejected by Lancashire, had officially become a legend.
10 After 1901/02, the MCC took over the organisation of tours and selection of teams.
11 It was another forty years before the cricket authorities felt it was safe to appoint a professional as captain. Len Hutton had that honour in 1952. He won each of his first five Test series as captain. The distinction between amateur and professional was finally abolished in 1962. For some people, the world has never been the same since.
12 Crockett was the umpire who no balled Jack Marsh, the Aborigine fast bowler, nineteen times in a state match. The crowd jeered every tim
e he called ‘no ball’, but he persisted until Marsh was taken off.
6. Ash Tree CC tour of Nantwich, 2007
If you have ever tried to get a cricket team out on a Sunday, or indeed any other day of the week, you will know that it is not a simple task. By comparison, Hercules had it easy when he had to clean out the Augean stables.
Cast iron guarantees on a Monday can be reduced to ‘not sure I can make it’ by Wednesday and then to ‘I’m really sorry, something’s come up’ by Friday. Out of the blue visits to obscure relatives, unexpected obligations to do some DIY work, children’s birthdays, grandchildren’s birthdays, ‘just remembered it’s our wedding anniversary’, ‘a mate has got me a ticket for the United match’ ……… the list of potential excuses is endless.
Trying to organise an overseas Taverners cricket tour multiplies all these difficulties many times over. The Ash Tree had followed its successful tour of Menorca in 2000 with a slightly less successful trip to Mallorca. We had all got to Manchester Airport on time, which was an encouraging, if somewhat unexpected start. However, our punctuality was not rewarded as we soon discovered that the plane we should have been on was in Mallorca not Manchester, and that there would be a six hour delay. We were flying First Choice and someone observed that it was a good thing that we were not with Second Choice.
There was nothing we could do but repair to the Yang Sing in the centre of Manchester, enjoy a Chinese meal and hope that everyone got back in time for the delayed flight. We got the train from the airport into the city, had an excellent meal and thankfully everyone made it back in good time. Our plane had found its way to Manchester and we eventually arrived at Palma de Mallorca in the early hours of the next day.
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