Score card for the match between Staffordshire County Cricket Club and the All Indian XI, June 1911

SRO D4245/5/1
©Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service

SF Barnes (1873-1967) was born in Smethwick, at that time in Staffordshire, and was one of the greatest bowlers in the game of cricket.

Playing cricket for Smethwick, Barnes was spotted by Warwickshire County Cricket Club and played for them in a number of seasons in the 1890s. After a period with the Lancashire League, he played for Staffordshire from 1904-1935, taking 1,437 wickets at an average of 8.10 runs. In the match recorded in this scorecard he took a total of 14 wickets.

In the 27 test matches which Barnes played, 20 of these against Australia, he took 189 test wickets in all. 106 of these were Australian wickets.

Barnes continued to play cricket until the age of 65. In 1939 at the age of 66 he started work for Staffordshire County Council using his particular skill of copper plate writing to inscribe many of the county’s legal documents. He had learned the skill from a school master who rapped the knuckles of pupils who did not hold their pens correctly. SF Barnes continued to work for the County Council until his nineties.