Fred Barratt - All-rounder

All-rounder

This fallow period in the mid 1920s made his emergence as a genuine all-rounder in the 1928 season, his benefit year, all the more surprising. In all matches, he took 114 wickets at a cost of 25.18 runs each and, unexpectedly, made 1167 runs at an average of 29.17, not far short of double the average and more than double the aggregate he had achieved in any other season before. Wisden had an explanation for his sudden advance: it attributed it to "waiting more patiently than heretofore for the right ball to hit". It added that he "gave some remarkable displays of high speed scoring which never degenerated into mere slogging". The 1928 season saw the only two centuries of Barratt's career. The first, an unbeaten 139 which remained his highest score, came in a high-scoring match on an easy pitch with short boundaries at Coventry, and set some records. Nottinghamshire's total of 656 for three declared was the highest at the time for the loss of only three wickets, and four of the five batsmen used – George Gunn, Whysall, Willis Walker and Barratt – made hundreds. Barratt, unusually promoted to No 5, and Walker put on 196 in 84 minutes and Barratt's 139 included seven sixes and 18 fours in what Wisden termed "a remarkable display of powerful driving". The vast total was not a match-winner: Warwickshire batted across the rest of the second day after Nottinghamshire's declaration, and then rain prevented any play on the third and final day, so that there was no decision even on first innings.

Less than two weeks later, Barratt made his second century, this time hitting an undefeated 110 in the home match against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge. He reached 50 in 30 minutes and his century in 85, and Wisden said it involved "some mighty hitting", including five sixes. It was not an innings without blemish: "He was missed on eight occasions—five times in the long field."