Sydney Francis Barnes

Sydney Francis Barnes was usually known by the name S.F.Barnes. This right handed batsman and right arm fast medium was born in 1873 in Smethwick in England. He played county cricket for a brief period for Warwickshire and in Lancashire in 1902 and 1903 with moderate success. After a contractual dispute near the end of the 1903 matches, he quit the County cricket to play for the Minor County Championship in Staffordshire. He even played for many other clubs located in the Lancashire League and in the Bradford Cricket League. He scored 1,441 wickets at 8.15 runs per wicket for Staffordshire.

Barnes made his test debut in cricket in 1901 with 129 runs whilst playing against the Australia team. His last test match was in 1914 whilst playing against South Africa team. After he took right wickets for the Players in Gentlemen v Players in 1914, he had to wait for 13 more years to play first class cricket agains. From 1915 till 1923, he played professional cricket for Saltaire with 803 wickets at an average of more than 5. Thrice he took hundred wickets, a feat which has only been achieved so far on two other occasions in the Bradford League’s history. He got the chance to play at the first nine appearances for Wales between 1927 and 1930 where he took 49 first class wickets for Wales. He even took 7 for 51 and 5 for 67 in the eight wicket triumph over the West Indies in 1928, at the age of 55 years. Other than that, he made two first class appearances in 1929 for the Minor Counties.

Barnes’s final first class game was in 1930 whilst playing against the MCC at the Lord’s. he took 2 for 57. In 1934, he returned to the league for Keighley when he was 61. Barnes played league cricket and minor county well into his sixties too and died in 1967 at the age of 94.

Career Highlights

Sydney Barnes took 189 Test wickets with an average of 16.43 and a strike rate of 41.65. Well into his fifties, he took 49 first class wickets for Wales which includes the victory over the Caribbean islands with 7 for 51 in 1928.

Barnes was selected as one of the Six Giants of the Wisden Century by Neville Cardus in the 1963 edition of Wisden Cricketers’Almanack.