Sid Barnes - The Turnstile Hurdler and Other Stories ......

[fredfertang]

Sid Barnes - The Turnstile Hurdler and Other Stories ......

Australian cricket has always produced some larger than life characters. In this feature Martin takes a look at the story of one of the most colourful of them.

 

[Spikey]

The only cricketer to come from my school.

 

[benchmark00]

The only cricketer to come from my school.

Hero.

 

[Spikey]

I had a lot to do with his success as a cricketer I'm happy to say

 

[Burgey]

A great read. Always thought he was harshly treated by the powers that be.

They really thought of ridiculous reasons to exclude blokes back then. Bit like John Benaud and the rubber soled shoes in the late 60s-early 70s.

 

[Spikey]

It didn't mention one Sid story though. Early on in the Invincibles tour Aus almost lost a low scoring match against Yorkshire. Bradman responded by saying 'Either Sid or I will have to play every match'. And that pretty much happened (They both didn't play in the Uni and minor county matches)

 

[The Sean]

Yet another gem Fred. :-)

Still the second highest average of anyone with more than 1,000 Test runs. Pleased that Spikey mentioned that quote from Bradman - a great compliment, and one of the finest indicators of Sid's ability.

Ernie Toshack said that Barnes was the best batsman he ever bowled to - and while Toshack never bowled to Bradman, it's worth noting that he did bowl to Hammond (albeit past his best), Hutton and Compton, so this was high praise indeed.

Another for the "what might have been" files.

 

[Burgey]

The other great Barnes story was on the boat over in 48. The team did thousands of autograph cards on the voyage but Barnes CBF so he paid a cabin boy to sign for him.

Trouble was the lad spelt his name wrong so a batch of about 500 had to go overboard.