Wilfred Barber

Wilfred Barber was a fine first class cricketer who gave sterling service to Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1926 to 1947. He also played 2 test matches for England in 1935 against South Africa. He was a professional batsman of textbook technique with a fluent array of off side strokes and, unusually for the time, was renowned as an outfielder in the deep. Despite a sound defense honed on the green pitches of the Yorkshire Council League Barber made only sporadic appearances in the strong Yorkshire team in the late twenties and only sealed a regular first team spot in 1932 when the great Percy Holmes dropped out through illness. He more than justified his position by scoring a thousand runs in that season, a feat he was to achieve eight times. Bill Bowes said of his technique that he was as correct, if not better, than Len Hutton.

He scored 15,289 first class runs for Yorkshire, 16,402 in all, and scored 29 centuries in averaging a solid 34.36 over his career. He scored no less than 2,147 in his peak year of 1935 when he averaged 42.09. He stroked 285 against Surrey at Bramall Lane, surpassing his previous best of 248 against Kent at Headingley the previous year when he and Sir Leonard Hutton compiled an opening stand of 267 when faced with a first innings deficit of 148.

Barber featured in a total of 8 century opening partnerships for Yorkshire, half of them with Arthur Mitchell. He scored 162 in his largest stand, of 346 in four and a half hours, which he shared with Maurice Leyland (189) against Middlesex at Sheffield in 1932. This mammoth total stood as the record for Yorkshire's second wicket for decades. In addition to his mountains of runs, Barber took 16 wickets with his occasional medium pace at a cost of just 26.18 a wicket.

It was a strong era for English batsmanship but Barber still managed to win two test caps in his best year of 1935, batting at number against H. F. Wade's South Africans in the third and fourth test matches. He made his debut on his home ground at Headingley and though he failed to play a major innings he delighted the home crowd with his bowling skills. With the game destined for a certain draw he was tossed the ball and took a wicket with his second delivery as South African wicket keeper Horace Cameron charged him to be stumped by Les Ames for 49. The game was then abandoned leaving Barber with the remarkable career test bowling record of 0.2 - 0 - 0 - 1 with a strike rate of a wicket every two balls! His second test saw him travel across the pennines to Old Trafford where he recorded his best knock of 44.

One of six Yorkshiremen to play for England that summer, he won selection to tour Australasia with the M.C.C. Team of E. R. T. Holmes in 1935-36 but though he scored 797 runs at 41.94 he did not make the test side. His run tally is a mark of how times have changed, with modern players often going through entire tours without a first class innings if they find themselves out of the international reckoning. He scored 91 against Queensland at Brisbane and came into his own on the New Zealand leg, scoring 173, 93 and 60 in the four representative games with New Zealand, in which he totaled 365 at 60.83 in addition to a knock of 116 against Canterbury.

After his retirement, Wilf Barber became a school coach and groundsman in Harrogate. Born on April 18, 1901 in Cleckheaton he died, aged 67, in Bradford on September 10, 1968.

References

* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/8983.html Cricinfo Profile]

* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/663/663.html Cricket Archive Statistics]