On 9 July 1948 at Old Trafford, the Australian opener Sid Barnes — fielding in his usual position barely five yards from the bat at short leg — was struck a fearful blow in the ribs by a full-blooded pull from Dick Pollard off Ian Johnson. Frank Chester, the umpire, said the ball hit him 'like a bullet'. Barnes 'dropped like a fallen tree' (Fingleton) and had to be carried from the field by four policemen. Ten days in Manchester Royal Infirmary followed; the injury effectively ended his tour as a major contributor.
Barnes, a successful businessman as well as a Test cricketer, had built his reputation on courage at the crease and at short leg. He had been hit there before but never as severely.
On 9 July England were 5 down for around 130 in their first innings. Bradman placed Barnes very close on the leg side to Pollard, an awkward left-hander; Pollard's pull was clean and middled.
Barnes, a 32-year-old Sydneysider with a reputation for fearlessness, fielded so close at short leg — barely four-and-a-half yards from the bat — that Bradman more than once asked him to retreat. Barnes refused.
In the first innings of the third Test, with Pollard on strike at 96 for 4, Ian Johnson tossed up an off-break. Pollard pulled it. The ball struck Barnes in the left ribs, low under the armpit. Barnes collapsed face-down. Lindwall, fielding nearby, said later it sounded 'like a wet sandbag'. Four Manchester policemen carried Barnes from the field on a stretcher.
He was admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary with bruising the size of a dinner plate and one rib displaced; for a few hours doctors feared a heart contusion. He was kept ten days. He returned to bat at 5pm on the fifth day, padded so heavily he could barely walk, and lasted half an hour before dropping to the pitch in pain and being helped off. He took no further meaningful part in the tour and never played another full Test series.
9 Jul 1948 — Barnes fielding c.5 yards at short leg
Pollard pulls Johnson into Barnes's ribs
Barnes carried off by four policemen
Admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary
13 Jul — Barnes attempts to bat in second innings; collapses, retires hurt
Misses fourth Test at Headingley
9 Jul 1948
Barnes hit at short leg, taken to hospital
10-19 Jul 1948
Ten-day stay at Manchester Royal Infirmary
13 Jul 1948
Returns to bat; retires hurt
Aug 1948
Plays the Oval Test but is much reduced
“It hit him like a bullet.”
“He dropped like a fallen tree.”
Barnes returned for the fifth Test at The Oval but, by his own admission, not at full health. He played only one more Test (in 1951-52) before retiring; the Old Trafford blow shadowed the rest of his career.
The most graphic injury of the Invincibles tour and a period example of the cost of pre-helmet short-leg fielding. Barnes's career, never quite the same afterwards, was effectively ended by the blow.
The episode is often cited in helmet-era debates as evidence that pre-helmet short leg was lethal to those who fielded there. Barnes's autobiography It Isn't Cricket (1953) gave the most vivid first-person account; Fingleton's Brightly Fades the Don (1949) supplied the famous 'fallen tree' image.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.