K. F. Barrington: Economy Of Effort To Produce Greatest Result

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30064, 23 February 1963, Page 9

K. F. Barrington: Economy Of Effort To Produce Greatest Result

WHEN the M.C.C. team ’’ was chosen to tour Australia, England’s hopes of regaining the Ashes were regarded as lying with the dashing batting of E. R. Dexter, M. C. Cowdrey and T. W. Graveney. There would have been few critics with sufficient temerity to suggest that the Surrey professional, K. F. Barrington, would not only outshine all those batsmen but would head the batting averages for the tour and also score more than 500 runs in the test series.

In bare figures Barring, ton scored 1451 runs in first-class matches at an average of 85.3 and in the tests averaged 72.7 flor his 582 runs—the most successful batting double by an England player in Australia since W. R. Hammond in 1928-29.

Barrington, not as spectacular as Dexter and Cowdrey in full flight.

nevertheless has been England’s greatest batting success on the tour and by far the most consistent of the recognised batsmen. He has taken longer than most to reach full flower in his batting and his career is a good example of the dangers of pushing a young batsman into test cricket too early. Now aged 32, Barrington played his first test match against South Africa in 1955 after only two full seasons of county cricket. He did not succeed and for the next three seasons he went through a comparatively lean period. But in 1959 in a glorious summer he scored more

than 2000 runs and averaged more than 50 in the tests against India.

Chosen to tour the West Indies in 1959, Barrington there registered in full his claim for a regular place in the England team with centuries in the first two tests. Against Australia in 191)1 he again was one of the most successful of the England batsmen but it was in India and Pakistan the following year that he emerged as a run-scoring machine'. Centuries came with awesome regularity and half-way through the tour his average was more than 200

Stockily built, Barrington normally is a punishing batsman, particularly off the back foot. The square cut and the pull ace two strokes which bring him many runs

but he can also cover drive with power and assurance. His foot may not be as close to the ball when he drives as the purists would wish but his driving is .just as effective as the more elegant strokes of his colleagues. Barrington has a marked two - eyed stance which means he does score a lot of his runs on the leg side. Perhaps because of this, Barrington often has been regarded as a batting tradesman rather than an artisan. His century in the fourth test was regarded by the critics as the best batting performance fiom either team. And in that innings

Barrington showed his ideal temperament flor teat cricket when he reached his century with a straight drive tor »x.

Ait first a fine out-fielder, Barrington now fields in the slips and in an England team where dropped catches have been almost as common as the runs that Barrington has scored on tour his safe catching has been nearly as important as his batting. But Barringtons usefulness does not end with his fielding; he also bowls quite a reasonable leg break and has managed to take a few test wickets. With E. R. Dexter considering retiring from test cricket and Graveney un-

likely to continue at a teat batsman. Barrington will—and probably aa of righttake over the position of England’* leading betanin. His batting on tbit tour certainly ha* placed him well ahead of his contemporaries It would not be too high a praise to describe Barrington a* the complete professional cricketer. His characteristic on the field is economy of effect to produce the greatest result. But recently Barrington took up golf and there, strangely enough, his worst fault was overswinging—a fault that never trouble* him on the cricket field.