Wisden overview
Just how gifted a games player Ken Barrington was can be gauged from the fact that to reclaim, then permanently keep, his Test place after being dropped, he abandoned his natural attacking style to become one of cricket's most notorious stonewallers. The revised method cost him his place once, by way of punishment for taking 435 minutes to score 137 against a humdrum New Zealand attack at Edgbaston in 1965, but overall it served him brilliantly. England too – before a heart attack forced premature retirement at 37, Barrington amassed 6806 Test runs at an average (58.67) surpassed for England only by Herbert Sutcliffe. A thickset 5ft 9ins, crinkly haired and strong-featured, in anything but batting gear Barrington was jovial and gregarious, always ready to see the best in everyone and every situation. Famous for mixed metaphors, his best-known quip came in answer to a Surrey fan commiserating over his lack of form after a sequence of four low single-figure scores, two ducks among them. "How d'you know I'm out of form?" shot back Ken indignantly: "I've only had nine balls all week!" It shattered Ian Botham's touring team when Barrington, England's assistant manager and a much-loved figure everywhere he went, died suddenly in Barbados in 1981 after another heart attack. John Thicknesse

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