Bob Barber's 185

Bob Borsley writes:

My cricket hero in the mid-1960s was Bob Barber, opening bat for Warwickshire and England. Barber played a few Tests for England in the early 60s when a Lancashire player but made little impact. He moved from Lancashire to Warwickshire at the end of 1962 and quickly changed from a cautious batsman to an attacking one. He scored a century for Warwickshire against the West Indies in 1963 and did even better against the Australians in 1964 with a century before lunch on the first day of the match (which Warwickshire eventually won). He was picked for the last Test in 1964 and then for the tour of South Africa in the following winter, where he had a Test average of 72.50.

As an attacking left-handed opening batsman Barber was a bit like Marcus Trescothick, but memory tells me rather more stylish. He was also an elegant and sometimes quite effective leg-spin bowler with a Test haul of 42 wickets at an average of 43.00 (which compares favourably with a later leg-spin bowler, Ian Salisbury, who managed 20 wickets at an average of 76.95). Finally, he was a fine fielder at short leg, in the covers, or on the boundary.

I saw Barber play some fine innings for Warwickshire, but the innings I would most have liked to witness was at Sydney in January 1966. His 185 came off only 255 balls and was in Wisden's words 'the superlative achievement of the whole tour'. England won by an innings and 93 runs. (Predictably they lost the next Test.) Sadly, increasing business commitments meant that Barber played only three more times for England after the Ashes series. He recently celebrated his 70th birthday. It's hard to believe.

From my bookshelves:

Barber's greatest innings of the tour and his opening stand of 234 with Boycott made certain that England would not lose the advantage of batting first. - Wisden 1967

Barber raised his 'ton' off the 147th delivery he received, a rare treat for the big crowd. This was his first Test century. He had made 97 against South Africa in Johannesburg on the 1964-65 tour, and that, we were told, was a riotous hit out or get out affair. This day Barber certainly hit out but with admirable restraint. - Ken 'Slasher' Mackay, Quest for the Ashes

The crowd of 40,000 rose to Barber as he came in, and it was right that they should do so. A couple of times Cowper had beaten him; once he had (when 170) played an untidy stroke at Philpott that might have ended by giving a slip catch. Otherwise nothing had marred the magnificence of his innings which had lasted just under five hours and brought him boundaries off 19 of the 255 balls he had faced. - John Clarke, With England in Australia

[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]