Barnes stormer

The “gentlemen” were perceived as aristocratic amateurs, the players plebeian professionals. In some clubs they not only had separate dressing rooms, they had separate gates.

Jon Barnes would clearly have had an identity crisis. Though he has spent much of his career as a club professional – “not earning a fortune, just enough to pay a few bills” – there can be few greater gentlemen in sport.

“An absolute top class man on and off the field. I wish everyone was the same,” says North Yorkshire and South Durham League president Chris West.

Even the umpires are said to admire him. If Jonny Barnes appeals for an LBW, there’s a pretty good chance the guy’s out.

Proof that nice guys do win things, gentleman Jonny has so far this season claimed 60 league wickets at a near-infinitesimal average of barely seven, helping Darlington to the top of the league. Almost all have been top order batsmen.

At Seaton Carew earlier in the summer he claimed 8-9 – “it was just one of those days, everyone seemed to get an edge,” he says with characteristic modesty – and against Hartlepool last Saturday he took 4-15 in as many miserly overs as the club edged closer towards the title.

“At one time in the match he’d taken 3-3 in nine overs,” says Chris West. “He must have been getting tired.”

The win stretched the lead over nearest rivals Richmond to 27 points: the two sides meet in the season’s last game. “It could be quite interesting,” says Jon.

He’s 45, now goes about his business off just eight short strides. “I just waddle in and let it go,” he insists.

“After that, it’s the batsmen who get it wrong.”

HE’S Darlington born and raised, a hint of rural North Yorkshire in his accent because his father and grandfather were from East Cowton – a few miles south of the Tees – and played in the village team.

“Big hitters, lots of sixes, then liked to bowl them out quickly and down to the pub as fast as possible,” he recalls.

His own career began in Darlington RA’s third team, then in the Darlington and District League, alongside his brother, Chris. At 18 he was in the first team – mainly for his batting – and in 1990 played Minor Counties cricket for Durham two years before they joined the County Championship.

Could he have made it in the first class game? “It was a big if,” he says. “I had a decent job at Barclays, I’d just been married and I had a bit of an injury at the time. Besides, they never really asked me.”

Chris West, who also worked for Barclays at the time, disagrees. “I’ve little doubt that he could have had a good first class career. We talked about it but it wasn’t particularly well paid and he had to be sensible.

“There’s still no one can hit him, his reputation is awesome.

If there’s a bit of damp about, there’s no one better.

“He’s also the master of the one-liner, brilliant at defusing situations, simply a lovely feller.”

AFTER the RA he was professional for Ushaw Moor in the Durham County League, helped them win several trophies, was amazed at how many games a successful side can play in a season.

We fall to recalling John Parkinson, a great Ushaw Moor stalwart.

“Trier to hide all those curls beneath his cap, an engineering feat that never quite worked,” says Jon.

It was in 17 years at Northallerton in the NYSD that he really made his name, however, amassing 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets, three times helping steer them to second place and captaining the league XI.

Twice he topped 1,000 runs in a season, took 9-60 against Hartlepool – “the other was run out” – and on one unforgettable occasion was on 99 league wickets when the last match of the season was abandoned.

Chris remembers it well. “It was at Redcar. Northallerton wanted to go back out again; perhaps understandably, Redcar didn’t.”

Jon’s characteristically keen to give credit to others, particularly Northallerton wicket keeper Ian Gill. “We had plenty of ups and downs at Northallerton, but Ian taught me an awful lot,” he says.

He left three years ago – “I’d just managed to get them relegated” – joining Darlington. Though he’s an amateur, he’s paid as club steward.

The great all-rounder, they reckon he keeps a very canny pint, an’ all.

WE lunch at the village pub down here, Jon half way through the day job as a business adviser. He also coaches the club’s youngsters – “not really a proper coach, just a level one.”

His victims are almost all top order men – “I leave the rest to the others,” he says, a unique moment of self-promotion balanced by his insistence that the league isn’t quite the same since it lost the overseas test players of the late 20th century.

“People like Ijaz Ahmed at Richmond,” he reflects, “completely different class from me.”

The NYSD retains many very good club cricketers, nonetheless. There are few cheap wickets, fewer still at the sharp end. “I still get a buzz, still have a bit of a celebration if I take a wicket, maybe because I’ve been a batsman myself and I know what it means to them. I still value a wicket.”

“I’ve got to the stage where I’m not entirely confident how I’m going to feel at any time and my own batting is a distant memory.

I’m working my way down to number 12, just occasionally adding a few where necessary.

“The run has been curtailed, eight short strides, though to be fair I never had any great pace to start with. I just try to hit the seam, bowl a good length, see what happens.”

He’s contemplated retirement, though it’s likely that Darlington would frog-march him from behind the bar if need be. “They say you’ll know when the time is right but that’s the trouble, I don’t.

“I always say that something will happen to me, someone’s going to hide my bat or my arm’s going to fly off but if the batsmen keep on making mistakes, then maybe I’ll have to carry on.”

Too nice to be an opening bowler? “Well it works,” says Chris West, “doesn’t it?”