Charles John Barnett (3 July 1910 – 28 May 1993) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, who played for Gloucestershire and for England in 20

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from 1933 to 1948. He was one of ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

''s five

Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1937.

Life and career

Charlie Barnett came from a well-known Gloucestershire cricketing family – his father ( Charles Barnett) and two uncles all played for the county, as amateurs. Educated at

Wycliffe College Wycliffe College () is an evangelical Colleges of the University of Toronto, graduate school of theology of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded i ...

in Stonehouse, Barnett began as an amateur (against Cambridge in 1927, when he was 16), turning professional in 1929. One of the most stylish batsman of the 1930s, Barnett began his career in the

middle order In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, but made his name as an opener after the retirement of Alfred Dipper in 1932. The greater responsibility added a tighter defence to his flashing array of drives and cuts, and he was picked for England against the

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in 1933. He marked his debut with a half century, batting at number 8, and passed 2,000 runs for the season. Although he remained vulnerable to an early dismissal, once set he was a formidable player and he recorded 48 centuries in all. Eleven sixes in an innings of 194 against

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

in 1934, stands as a testament to the power of his stroke play. He failed to pass 1,500 runs in only two seasons, and gradually developed his left arm medium pace bowling, as a useful adjunct to his batting. Barnett scored two Test centuries, putting on 219 for the first wicket with

Len Hutton Sir Leonard Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was an English cricketer. He played as an Batting order (cricket)#Opening batsmen, opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England national cricket team ...

against

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in 1938, as England compiled 658 for eight. His undefeated 98 before lunch on the first day of that Ashes series, remains the closest any Englishman has ever come to recording a century before lunch, on the first day of a Test match against Australia. However his career, like so many others, was stymied by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He returned after the war in four more tests with little success, and retired from the county game to take up a league engagement for

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, and later ran his own meat and poultry business. He became a school coach until his retirement, and died in a Stroud Glos nursing home in May 1993, at the age of 82.

References

England Test cricketers English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers 1910 births 1993 deaths Wisden Cricketers of the Year Cricketers from Cheltenham Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club Australian Touring Team cricketers Cricketers from Gloucestershire {{England-Test-cricket-bio-stub