Fred Barratt - Test Cricketer

Test Cricketer

Barratt maintained his 1928 form into the 1929 season, when Nottinghamshire won the County Championship for the first time since 1907. He made 860 runs at an average of 22.05, and twice scored more than 90 without reaching a century. As before his runs came quickly: 94 in 80 minutes against Surrey and 90 in 75 minutes against Middlesex being noted by Wisden. Bowling alongside Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in "an attack superior to that of any other county", Barratt took, in all matches, 129 wickets at a cost of 21.24 runs each. And when Larwood was injured before the Fourth Test against the South Africans at Old Trafford, Barratt was picked to replace him in a side captained by his county captain, Arthur Carr. He took one wicket in each innings in a match that England won by an innings. He was not picked for the final match of the series, when his place was taken by Nobby Clark of Northamptonshire.

In the winter of 1929-30, MCC picked tour parties to visit the newly Test-playing West Indies and New Zealand. Both sides were a mixture of established Test players and other county standard amateurs and professionals, and some "star" players of the time opted out entirely. Barratt was picked for the tour to New Zealand, with some first-class matches (but not Test matches) being played in Australia as well. He had what Wisden called "days of effectiveness with the ball". They included two good matches on the Australian leg of the tour, taking nine wickets in the match against South Australia and five in an innings against Victoria. But although he played in all four Tests in New Zealand, he was not successful, taking only three wickets in the series, and never more than one in an innings. And on the tour as a whole, his batting was not up to his recent standards, with no scores of 50 in the 11 first-class matches he played in.