Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/289

 But Barratt seemed to divine this inherent weakness of young players, and rarely failed to profit by it. Against my brother E.M. and myself he seldom bowled that ball. We played against him at Swindon in local matches before he appeared at Lord's and the Oval, and knew his trap; and as he said repeatedly, when bowling against us for Surrey v. Gloucestershire, "It's no use now; my little game is over. Help yourselves, gentlemen!" which E.M. promptly did. He ran yards out of his ground, and pulled him to the boundary so often that Barratt was frightened to bowl a good length against him, and his short ones were just as mercilessly thrashed.

It was rather hard luck on Barratt that when he represented Surrey the eleven was not only weak, but had very little fast bowling. In many matches he was kept on too long because there was no one good enough to relieve him, and the consequence was that the batsmen got set and hit him. Nothing disheartens a bowler so much; and these circumstances must be taken into consideration in forming an estimate of the good work he did for his county. He represented the Players in 1877, and might have been chosen oftener; but Alfred Shaw and Southerton were in great form at that time, and naturally were chosen first. Barratt has many fine performances to his credit; but his best was for an Eleven of Players v. Australians, at the Oval, on the 2nd and 3rd Sept., 1878, when he took all ten wickets first innings for 43 runs. Like most left-hand batsmen he could hit, but his defence was weak. I took more than common interest in his progress, for I was the first to find out his powers when he played at Swindon, and recommended him to the M.C.C., where he was engaged in 1872. The year after he moved to Prince's; and in 1874 he was on the staff of the Surrey Club at the Oval, where he remained for many years.