Frederick Albert Baring (15 December 1890 – 10 December 1961) was an Australian rules footballer who played with

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington * Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport * Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United Ki ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) during the early 1900s. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

he was named at fullback in Essendon's official Team of the Century. He also played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Family

The son of Frederick John Baring (1857–1917), and Annie Baring (−1935), née Riley, Frederick Albert Baring was born in North Melbourne (then known as "East Hotham") on 15 December 1890. He married Minnie Sybil Horne (−1940) in 1916, and Edith Lillian Ackary in February 1944.

Football

A four-times premiership player with Essendon (1911, 1912, 1923, 1924), Baring started his career as a ruckman and ended it as a fullback. He kicked the winning goal in the 1912 Grand Final and captained Essendon for eight matches in the

1918 VFL season The 1918 VFL season was the 22nd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. Played during the final year of World War I, eight of the league's nine senior clubs co ...

. In

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

he won the Essendon Best and Fairest award. He was a VFL interstate representative at the

1911 Adelaide Carnival The 1911 Adelaide Carnival was the second edition of the Australasian Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It took place from 2 to 12 August at Adelaide Oval. A crowd of 20,000 witnessed South Australia convi ...

. During his career Baring played under the pseudonym "Adamson", when he was unable to get approved leave to play in the VFL from his employer.

Cricket

Baring was also a successful cricketer and played

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

matches for

. A right-handed batsman, he managed a total of 30 first-class matches between 1911–12 and 1928–29, scoring 1846 runs at 32.96. Following the death of

Victor Trumper Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...

, Baring was recognised as the best batsman in Australia on poor pitches.Atkinson, p. 181. He made his highest score of 131 opening the batting for Victoria against

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in December 1918. He came close to playing

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

for Australia after being named in their squad to tour

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

in 1914–15, but the series was canceled due to World War I.

Death

Baring died in the Melbourne suburb of

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

on 10 December 1961.

Champions of Essendon

In 2002 an Essendon panel ranked Baring at 24 in their ''

Champions of Essendon The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their ...

'' list of the 25 greatest players ever to have played for Essendon.Champions of Essendon, ''Essendon Football Club'', 30 August 2002.
/ref>

Footnotes

References

* Atkinson, G. (1982) ''Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking'', The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. . * Maplestone, M., ''Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996'', Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. * Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996.

External links

* *
Fred Baring
at ''Boules Football Photos''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baring, Fred 1890 births 1961 deaths Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club Premiership players Champions of Essendon Crichton Medal winners Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Four-time VFL/AFL Premiership players People from North Melbourne