Ken Barrington
Cricketislife!
'Years later, some English journalist asked Barrington the secret of
his success in India. "Eggs and toast, old chap," replied Ken, "that
is all I ordered wherever I went in the subcontinent." I retold this
tale to a Bengali colleague of mine at the Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library. "Nonsense," he replied. "During the Test match at the Eden
Gardens I myself threw him an orange, which he caught, peeled, and ate
fully."
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CiL
1963. " However, in an early match, against West Zone at Poona, Ken
Barrington split the webbing of his hand taking a slip catch. He was
sent home, and while waiting for his flight at Santa Cruz airport
bumped into John Woodcock of The Times. "And to think of all those
Test runs that will go begging," complained Ken.
The runs were to be made by Cowdrey, who was flown in as a
replacement. He arrived in time for the third Test, in Calcutta. The
day before the match Cowdrey came to the Eden Gardens for a net. He
placed a Rs. 10 note on his wicket, and invited competitors. A
groundsman at the Gardens, Jeevan Mali, bowled him twice in three
balls. "
rkusenet
"Cricketislife!" <cricke...@rediffmail.com> wrote
> 'Years later, some English journalist asked Barrington the secret of
> his success in India. "Eggs and toast, old chap," replied Ken, "that
> is all I ordered wherever I went in the subcontinent."
I am trying to recollect whether Ken Barrington is the person who gave
this advice to English cricketers while on tour to India and Pakistan.
This was during those days when they use to travel by train for short
distances.
His advice was "just eat boiled eggs. in no way it will create
enuf muck for you to visit the toilet". An obvious reference
to absymal condition of toilets in public places in India/Pak.
rk-
Cricketislife!
Ken Barrington
Down the years many great batsmen have been developed at Kennington
Oval, the home of Surrey County Cricket Club, and last summer it
seemed that another had emerged in Ken Barrington. In all matches he
scored 2,499 runs at an average of 54.32 an innings and he certainly
fulfilled the promise he had shown in his earlier days.
Born at Reading on November 24, 1930, Kenneth Frank Barrington pays
tribute to his father, who spent 28 years in the Forces and served in
the two Great Wars. Ken was little more than a toddler when his father
taught him to hold a cricket bat and throw a ball. He remembers
playing cricket when he was eight or nine at Katesgrove School,
Reading, which he left at the age of fourteen.
At first he worked in a local garage, but soon he forsook the motor
industry to become assistant groundsman to the Reading Cricket Club at
Earley and that move has kept him in the game ever since. In those
days he considered himself a right-arm slow bowler with an aptitude to
turn the ball from leg. Reading put him in their first team and he was
satisfied to bat at eight or nine.
The turning-point in his career came in 1947 when he was 16 and
playing for Reading Wednesday at Guildford. Someone was impressed by
his leg-spinners and without his knowledge contacted Surrey who
invited him to play for the Colts the following week. He took five
wickets in his first game and continued to appear for the Colts for
the remainder of the season.
The next year, 1948, found him a professional on the Surrey staff, but
he played in only one second eleven match and was still reckoned a
leg-spinner when he joined the Army in 1949. The matting pitches in
Germany were ideal for his type of bowling and he took heaps of
wickets.
Returning to The Oval in 1951 it became obvious to all those who saw
him at the nets that here was a stylish ready-made batsman. Under the
skilful coaching of Andrew Sandham he developed his powers as a
run-getter and more or less forsook bowling. That season he made 354
runs, highest score 73, in the Minor Counties competition, and the
following summer saw a big advance for, hitting three hundreds, he
made 1,097 runs, average 57.73.
Barrington realised his ambition next season, 1953, when he made his
debut for the Surrey XI against M.C.C. at Lord’s. He also played
against the Australians at The Oval and appeared in seven county
matches, but it was a modest beginning, his aggregate for the summer
being 237 runs, average 18.23.
Real progress came in 1954 when he averaged 40.23 in 25 innings and
hit three hundreds while scoring 854 runs, his maiden century being
108 not out against Gloucestershire at The Oval. He and Laker, who
also hit his maiden Championship century in that game, put on 198,
their stand falling only six short of Surrey’s best for the eighth
wicket.
The year of 1955 was a notable one for Barrington. He scored more runs
than previously, 1,580, gained his county cap and he played twice for
England against South Africa. Moreover, the Cricket Writers’ Club
voted him the Most Promising Young Player of the Year. He was also
chosen for the M.C.C. A team tour of Pakistan, but his elevation to
International status was premature and four years elapsed before he
was honoured again.
For a time Barrington remained somewhat static as a batsman. Indeed,
after all his promise he had two comparatively lean years in 1956 and
1958, but in 1957 his runs numbered 1,642 and he hit six centuries,
yet one felt that the best of him had not been seen. It should be
borne in mind that during these formative years for Barrington, Surrey
were winning the Championship regularly on pitches that encouraged the
bowlers. Under Surridge and May, the batsmen were expected to make
their runs in reasonable time and many people were of the opinion that
Barrington did not show the enterprise that his ability warranted.
Barrington, on the other hand, considers that his first five or six
years in the Surrey team provided the sound education that he needed
to perfect his defence, as well as the experience required to get to
the top of the cricketing world. He admits he also learned much from
being able to watch great players, particularly Peter May.
Always a punishing type of batsman, Barrington came out in his true
colours in the sunny days of 1959. Beginning with 97 and 25 against
Cambridge University at Fenner’s, he trounced the Warwickshire bowling
in Surrey’s first Championship match at Edgbaston by making 186 and
118 not out. Selected for all five Tests against India he showed
consistency with these scores: 56 at Trent Bridge, 80 at Lord’s, 80 at
Headingley, 87 and 46 at Old Trafford and his only failure was in the
final Test at The Oval where he had to be satisfied with 8. He was an
obvious choice for the M.C.C. tour of West Indies.
Built on solid lines with a mop of dark hair, Barrington has always
possessed a powerful square cut and brilliant cover drives. Nowadays
he is equipped with a very wide range of strokes and when he is master
of the situation he provides plenty of entertainment for the
onlookers. The straight uplift of his bat is a model for anyone to
copy. From his earliest days he was a fine fielder with a deadly
return to the wicket. In recent years Surrey have employed him close
to the bat and when Stuart Surridge retired he went to first slip in
1957 as if trained for the position and held 64 catches in his first
season there.
While Surrey have not needed Barrington as a slow bowler during the
hey-day of Laker and Lock, M.C. Cowdrey, on the occasion of his first
Test as captain of England at Old Trafford last summer, gave him the
opportunity to show that he can still pitch a steady length besides
giving the ball a good tweak and he took five Indian wickets in the
two innings.
http://213.225.136.77/almanack/item.asp?colid=44119009
Cricketislife!
'Ken Barrington is remembered in India long after he last played here.
A couple of years ago, the great googly bowler B. S. Chandrasekhar
said that of all the batsmen he bowled to, Barrington was the most
difficult. (To underline the compliment, consider the competition -
Chandrasekhar bowled to Sobers, Lloyd, Richards, Greenidge, Lawry,
O'Neill, Cowdrey, Boycott, and Gavaskar too). One did not, however,
have to bowl to the Englishman to admire him. It was enough to watch
Barrington bat, or in the field. One of Chandrasekhar's fellow
townsmen, an enthusiastically modest cricketer himself, even named his
son after him. That was 19 years ago: this current cricket season the
boy made his first-class debut for Karnataka, and hit a hundred. His
name is Barrington Rowland.
RAMACHANDRA GUHA
March 2000
Cricketislife!
Bob Simpson on Barrington
'Ken Barrington is probably the most successful England batsman since
the War and in many ways the most underrated.
I am biased, because I became a close friend of Ken and because I rate
so highly, quality, guts, attitude and all the things which Barrington
and so many of the genuine cricketers of the world stand for.
Look at his record against Australia, in particular, and tell me why
he never achieved the lasting fame he obviously deserved.
Wally Grout, the great Australian wicket-keeper once remarked,
"Whenever I saw Ken coming to the wicket I thought a Union Jack was
trailing behind him."
On many occasions Ken carried the weight of England's chances on his
shoulders. Yet, he was good enough to finish with a Test average of
58.67. '
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CiL
'Famous for mixed metaphors, his best-known quip came in answer to a
Surrey fan commiserating over his lack of form after a sequence of
four low single-figure scores, two ducks among them. "How d'you know
I'm out of form?" shot back Ken indignantly: "I've only had nine balls
all week!" I.'
John Thicknesse