The Society is delighted to welcome back John Barclay, President of the MCC for 2009 to 2010, who previously spoke to us in our 1988/1989 and 1997/1998 programmes. John Robert Troutbeck Barclay was born on 22 Jan 1954 in Bonn, Germany, where his father was serving at the time. He is known in cricketing circles as “Trout”.
He has lived in Sussex since 1956, and received his first cricket award from his Brighton school at the age of 7. He captained his prep school XI and was “capped” for Eton College aged 14, being captain of the XI in 1970 and 1971. As an acclaimed schoolboy cricketer he was honoured by The Cricket Society. He made his first-class debut for Sussex, while still at school, in 1970, aged 16.
John played from 1970 to 1986 for Sussex (being capped in 1976, captain from 1981 to 1986 and receiving a benefit in 1986), MCC (1977) and Orange Free State (1978/1979), appearing in all in 274 first-class matches. As Sussex captain he was both talented and unorthodox. He was a right-handed opening batsman and off-spin bowler who was just short of Test class. Nevertheless, at first-class level, he scored around 10,000 runs at about 25 with 9 centuries and 46 fifties, and he took over 300 wickets at around 30 and bagged 5 wickets in an innings 9 times, with a best of 6-61, and 10 wickets in a match once. He also made 214 catches. A succession of injuries, especially one to a finger, forced his premature retirement, aged 32, in 1986.
Aged 27, he succeeded Arnold Long as Sussex’s captain in 1981. In his first season Sussex narrowly failed to win (finishing second) the County Championship for the first time in their 140 years’ history. Playing Notts, at Trent Bridge, in August 1981 a crucial lbw decision, with Imran Khan bowling, went against Sussex and Notts’ final pair survived. In 2002 Fairfield Books (Stephen Chalke’s company) published John’s well-received book (with a foreword by Lord Sheppard), “The Appeal of the Championship: Sussex in the Summer of 1981”.
During his playing career, John spent much time abroad. In 1970/1971 he toured India as vice-captain of the England Schools, and he captained the England U19’s on tour in the West Indies in 1972. In 1972/1973 he played for and coached the Hong Kong Cricket Club. In 1975 he toured West Africa with the MCC. He went to Bangladesh with the MCC in 1977, and then took up a coaching position for World Series Cricket in Sydney. He played for, and coached, Orange Free State in 1978/1979. In 1992 he was player/manager of the MCC tour of the Leeward Islands. He managed the England U19 tour of Sri Lanka in 1993/1994 and the 1994/1995 England A tour of India and Bangladesh. In 1995/1996 he was Ray Illingworth’s assistant to South Africa and the World Cup in the Indian sub-continent. In 1996/1997 he was manager on the controversial tour of Zimbabwe and New Zealand.
In 2008 Fairfield Books published John’s highly-acclaimed memoirs (with a foreword by Mike Atherton), “Life Beyond the Airing Cupboard”. This is a rounded portrait of a quietly remarkable man in which there is both laughter and sadness, success and failure, in a book which comprises 30 episodes, each carefully evoked. Read it!!