Alan Barber

Alan Theodore Barber (1905 - 1985) was an English first class cricketer, later a prep school headmaster.

Cricketer

Barber played in 27 matches for Oxford University between 1927 and 1929 and in 42 games for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1929 to 1930. He also featured for one game in Lord Hawke's XI. He captained Oxford University and Yorkshire in 1930 as an amateur in the traditional fashion of the time, in which year he was also awarded his county cap.

He was born on the 17 June 1905 at Eccleshall, Sheffield and died on the 10 March 1985 at Ludgrove in Wokingham, Berkshire. He was a double blue at Oxford and was a skilled player of Eton Fives, winning the Kinnaird Cup twice with his fellow Salopian, Desmond Backhouse, a leading squash player.

He was a right-handed batsman who scored 2261 runs in his 70 matches at an average of 23.2 He scored two centuries - 119 against Nottinghamshire for Oxford and an even hundred opening the batting in a game Yorkshire played in 1929 against an England XI. He bowled one over without success.

Although he captained Yorkshire for just one season the cricket writer E.M. Wellings valued his captaincy skills. He wrote that Barber had 'brought order to a then somewhat awkward Yorkshire squad' and laid the foundations for Yorkshire's future success under Frank Greenwood and Brian Sellers.

Headmaster

Barber left the first class game of cricket in his mid twenties to pursue a career in teaching, rising to become headmaster of Ludgrove, a well regarded prep school in Berkshire, and one of the few to possess an Eton Fives court.

References

* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9512.html Cricinfo Profile]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/27/27663/27663.html Cricket Archive Statistics]
* [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/wcm/content/story/70323.html Unthanked Captains by E.M. Wellings]