Sidney George Barnes was an Australian cricketer and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following World War II. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman, in the process setting a world-record 405-run fifth wicket partnership. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by World War II.

Barnes was born in 1916 in Annandale, an inner suburb of Sydney. However, in his autobiography, he claims to have been born in 1918 or 1919 in Queensland, and his military service record has his date of birth as 5 June 1917. After marrying, his parents left Tamworth to take up a lease on a remote sheep station near Hughenden in North Queensland. Before Sid was born, Alfred died from typhoid fever, caused by drinking contaminated water on the family property. After his death, Hilda, widowed and pregnant with her latest child, moved to Sydney.

Barnes attended Stanmore Public School and, although not a scholar, was a keen participant in sporting activities. His introduction to cricket came via his older brother, Horrie; a useful batsman who played in the local Western Suburbs Churches league and paid Sid sixpence to bowl to him after he finished work. Taking an interest in the game, Sid had trials for the school team and was eventually selected in the first XI. Successes for both his school team and his local club team, St. Augustine, saw him acquire the nickname The Governor-General. He was selected for New South Wales Schoolboys to play teams from Victoria and Queensland. Barnes made his first-grade cricket debut as a batsman/wicket-keeper against Paddington, facing the bowling of Hunter Hendry and Alan McGilvray. He was soon successful, scoring a century against Manly.

Barnes had come to the attention of the New South Wales selectors by the 1936/37 season and was included as twelfth man in the side to play the visiting English side, taking a catch on the boundary to dismiss Stan Worthington. He made his first-class debut in the final Sheffield Shield match of the season, against South Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Batting at number five, Barnes scored 31 and 44, twice being dismissed LBW by the leg spinner Frank Ward. Barnes was selected for New South Wales for the opening match of the 1937/38 season against Queensland making 68 in a rain-affected match. Against the touring New Zealanders, Barnes fell just short of his maiden first-class century, scoring 97.

He appeared to have reached the landmark when scoring 127 not out against Western Australia, but the New South Wales Cricket Association retrospectively deemed the match to be not of first-class status, angering Barnes. He finally scored his maiden first-class century (110) against Victoria in the final game of the season, completing his hundred while bleeding profusely after being struck on the jaw by a ball delivered by Ernie McCormick. As a result of his performances over the season (scoring over 800 runs, averaging 50.56), Barnes was selected as the youngest member of the Australian cricket team to tour England in 1938.

Unfortunately for Barnes, he broke his wrist while exercising on the sea voyage to England for the 1938 tour, keeping the injury secret until the tourists had departed Gibraltar, for fear of being sent home. On arrival in England, he therefore did not play an innings until the last day of June, missing exactly half of the 30 first-class matches scheduled for the tour, including the first two Tests, both of which were drawn. His first innings was 42 against Derbyshire and he shared in a fourth wicket stand of 176 with Bill Brown, who made an unbeaten 265.

Sid Barnes Test debut came in the final Test, played at The Oval. Barnes had to field for 16 hours as England amassed a total of 903 for seven declared, then the highest Test score. Barnes bowled 38 overs in the innings and took the seventh wicket, that of Arthur Wood, for 84 runs. With both Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton injured and unable to bat, Australia struggled – England won by an innings and 579 runs – still the largest winning margin in Test cricket history. In all first-class matches on the tour, Barnes scored 720 runs, and reached 90 three times, though without going on to a first-class century. He scored 140 in a two-day match against Durham, which was not considered first-class.

His international career was then put on hold, as all foreign tours were suspended during World War II. He continued to play first-class cricket in Australia, before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force in May 1942. Barnes's time in the military was short. He met champion golfer Norman Von Nida early into his enlistment and the two were assigned to the 1st Armoured Division in Greta. A shortage of tanks and the military regimen led to boredom and Barnes used his hitherto ignored trade background to his advantage, seeking a release to join a tank-making company, which was granted. Von Nida and Barnes remained friends and business partners for many years afterwards.

After scoring 1,050 runs (including six centuries) at an average of 75.00 in the 1940/41 season, Barnes played little cricket until 1945/46, when he scored centuries in five successive matches for New South Wales. He was picked for the 1945/46 Australian tour of New Zealand and played in the representative match that was later designated as the first Test match between the two countries: he made 54 as Australia won easily. The post-war period also saw a new approach to batting on the part of Barnes. He discarded his aggressive and flamboyant shot-making and re-invented himself as a watchful, more defensive player, which made his scoring more prolific, although less crowd pleasing. On the advice of Don Bradman, Barnes learned patience and was willing to be guided by anything that Bradman wanted him to do.

It was during the Second Test at Sydney in December 1946, that Barnes made a lasting impression on the world game. Having opened the innings, he made his top Test score of 234 and helped to set a world-record 405 run fifth-wicket partnership with Don Bradman, a record that still stands today. Barnes played carefully on the still-suspect pitch into the second day, and, late in the afternoon, Bradman, lower in the order than usual due to a leg injury, joined Barnes with the score at 4/159. Over six and a half hours later, Bradman was out for 234. Barnes was dismissed just four balls later, also for 234, having batted for over ten hours.

Lots of people have asked Barnes whether he deliberately threw his wicket away at 234. He confirmed to an interviewer many years later that "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Sir Donald Bradman."

Barnes injured his hand during fielding practice before the Third Test, and although he went on to play in that game, he opted out of batting in a state game which cost him the New South Wales captaincy. He returned for the final Test and top-scored with 71 in Australia's first innings, adding 30 in the second. Barnes then went to England in 1947 as a rep for a wine and spirits company. Once in England, he was approached by Burnley to play as a professional in Lancashire League cricket, which he did for a while before finding it "too much of a drag". He returned to Australia for the 1947/48 season, keen to win a place on the 1948 tour to England. Arriving back with several state games having already been played, he failed to make runs for New South Wales and was not picked for the first two Tests against the Indian tourists, Bill Brown taking over as opener with Morris.

The match between Victoria and New South Wales was Barnes's chance to redeem himself. Barnes needed a score to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the Test Selectors and he spent all Saturday scoring over 131 runs while 20,000 impatient spectators barracked loudly. His dismissal on the third day evoked cheers all round the ground. He followed that century (158 in total) with a similarly plodding 80 not out in the second innings, and was picked for the third Test, with Brown dropped after a series of low scores in the first two Tests. In the fourth Test at Adelaide he made 112 and put on 236 with Bradman for the second wicket.

With 33 in the final match of the series, his place on the 1948 tour was secure, though he had to give assurances about the amount of contact he would have with his wife, still living in Scotland, before he was confirmed. The 1948 Australia team that toured England has become known as The Invincibles, because they did not lose a single game. Before the second Test at Lord's, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century. He made a duck in the first innings but ensured success in the second, making 141. Barnes and Morris shared century opening partnerships at Lord's and The Oval, where their 117 run stand dwarfed the 52 all out made by the entire England team. In addition to his century at Lord's, Barnes made three other scores over 60 in the series.

In England's first innings of the third Test, he was hit in the ribs by a full-blooded pull shot from Dick Pollard from the bowling of Ian Johnson, and had to be carried from the pitch by four policemen. The following day, he collapsed while practising in the nets, and when he went in to bat at number six, he collapsed again and had to retire hurt. After this, he was taken to hospital where he spent 10 days before rejoining the tour for the Derbyshire match that followed the fourth Test.

Barnes played in Bradman's testimonial match at the MCG in December 1948, but otherwise made himself unavailable for first-class cricket, preferring to pursue business interests. He wrote a regular column for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph, prosaically titled "Like It or Lump It", in which he often criticised the administration of the game and the amounts paid to Australia's leading cricketers. Barnes was one of a number of cricket writers of the immediate post-war era who adopted a confrontational tabloid style of journalism, in contrast to the more sedate reporting of the 1930s.

During his absence from the Test team, the Australian selectors had been unsuccessful in their attempts to find a reliable partner for Arthur Morris to open the batting. Barnes started the season solidly and, in the last match before the team for the third Test against the West Indies was chosen, he hit 107 against Victoria. The Board of Control had granted themselves the power to exclude a player from the national team "on grounds other than cricket ability" following the poor behaviour of some members of the 1912 team that toured England. They had a secret dossier, compiled during the season, documenting Barnes's behaviour and they doctored the minutes of the meeting at which they discussed his selection. Publicly, the Board remained silent on their policy and how it related to Barnes. On the field, Barnes responded with an innings of 128 in three hours against Queensland; off the field, he sought answers from the administrators, but was frustrated by their evasiveness.

Resuming for New South Wales in 1952/53, Barnes scored 152 against Victoria in the last match before the beginning of the Test series against South Africa. Nevertheless, the selectors overlooked him for the first Test and in the following state match, against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, Barnes offered to act as twelfth man to provide an opportunity for a younger player, Ray Flockton. During a drinks break on the second day of the match, he appeared on the ground in a suit and tie, (rather than 'whites') carrying superfluous items such as cigars, iced towels, a mirror and comb, a radio and a clothes brush.

Barnes appeared just once more for New South Wales, against South Africa at New Year 1953, then made himself unavailable for selection, conceding that "his card had been marked". The Australian team toured England in 1953 and lost the Ashes after holding them for 19 years. Journalist Ray Robinson called Sid Barnes the Artful Dodgerrof cricket, alluding to both his batting style and his off-field business dealings, and wrote that he "would rather steal a run like a pickpocket than hit an honest four with a straightforward stroke." He was a part-time leg break bowler, taking 57 wickets in first-class cricket at a useful average of 32.21.[34] Barnes's leg break spun very little, but he had a topspinner which hurried onto the batsman and yielded him many wickets.

Outside of cricket, Barnes followed his mother into property development and at various times entered into partnerships with Keith Miller and Norman Von Nida. His suspicious nature, which grew as time passed, saw these partnerships and developments end in arguments and recriminations. While Barnes was not a millionaire, he was a successful and organised businessman. At the end of the 1953 tour, he published Eyes on the Ashes, and his autobiography, It Isn't Cricket. He also wrote The Ashes Ablaze in 1955, and turned to full-time writing, mostly for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph. His columns were perceived as being deliberately controversial.

Only six players with ten or more completed innings have achieved an end-of-career average in excess of 60. Barnes's 63.05 in 19 innings ranks him as number three in the history of Test cricket, behind Sir Donald Bradman (99.94, 80 innings) and Stewie Dempster (65.72, 15 innings). Barnes's short career was dominated by his monumental double hundred, but he was a consistent performer. Age did not seem to diminish his abilities; in his last eight Test innings, aged 31–32, he passed 50 five times and scored two of his three Test hundreds. He was indeed, a legend in a legendary era.