Thomas Barker (15 November 1798 – 2 March 1877) was an English professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er, who 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 ...

from 1826 to 1845. He was a right-handed batsman and a

roundarm In cricket, roundarm bowling is a bowling style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowlers extend their arm about 90 degrees from their ...

fast bowler. He became an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

when his playing career ended. Barker was born in

Carlton, Nottinghamshire Carlton is a town in the Borough of Gedling, Nottinghamshire, England. It is to the east of Nottingham. The population at the 2011 Census was 6,881. It was an urban district until 1974, whose wards (Carlton Hill, Carlton, Cavendish, Colwick, G ...

. He was a member of the former

Nottingham Cricket Club Nottingham Cricket Club was an English cricket club which played in Nottingham during the 18th and 19th centuries. Matches have been recorded between 1771 to 1848 and the team played in 15 first-class matches between 1826 and 1848. The earliest ...

which evolved into Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club during his career and he was mainly associated with these two clubs. He also played for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) and he represented the Players in the

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

fixture. He bowled at an extremely fast pace, using a roundarm action.

William Denison Sir William Thomas Denison (3 May 1804 – 19 January 1871) was Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1847 to 1855, Governor of New South Wales from 1855 to 1861, and Governor of Madras from 1861 to 1866. According to Percival S ...

wrote of his style: "So violent was it, that he sometimes ran up to the crease and propelled his instrument of attack as though his head would follow the ball."Notts County Cricket Club site. Barker made 72 known appearances in first-class cricket.CricketArchive – profile
Retrieved on 2 December 2008. He scored 1269 runs at 10.57 with a highest score of 58, that being his sole half-century. He took 34 catches. His bowling statistics are incomplete because for much of his career, bowlers were not credited with wickets falling to catches. Even so, he averaged nearly three wickets per match, with 210 known wickets at 14.77 with a best performance of seven in an innings. He took

ten wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bo ...

four times. In 1843, Barker was badly injured in an accident involving a horse-drawn cab in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. As a result, he had to stop playing in 1845 and was engaged by the MCC as an

. He stood in 70 first-class matches until 1865. During the winter months, he worked in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

as a stockinger. He died in Nottingham, aged 78.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Thomas 1798 births 1877 deaths English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Hampshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Midland Counties cricketers Non-international England cricketers North v South cricketers Nottingham Cricket Club cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Players cricketers Players of Nottinghamshire cricketers Yorkshire cricketers People from Carlton, Nottinghamshire Cricketers from Nottinghamshire