joined Smethwick Cricket Club and played for its third team. He was taught to bowl off spin by Billy Bird, the Smethwick professional who had played for Warwickshire, and then taught himself to bowl leg spin. In due course, he was selected for the second team and had earned a place in the first team, playing in the Birmingham and District Premier League, at the start of the 1893 season. In 1894, when Barnes was a 21-year-old fast bowler, he was asked to join the ground staff of Staffordshire County Cricket Club but he found the terms unattractive. Instead, he joined Rishton Cricket Club in the Lancashire League where the pay was better than in any form of county cricket, largely because of match bonuses and collections. He played for Rishton until 1899. Wilfrid S. White commented that Barnes's career in league cricket "stands out unparalleled, unapproached, by any other player". Later in the 1894 season, Barnes was invited to play for Warwickshire, who were due to enter the County Championship in 1895. His debut was in a minor match against Cheshire at Edgbaston on 20–21 August. Barnes bowled only 8 overs, taking none for 27, and the match was drawn. On 23 August, Barnes made his first-class debut for Warwickshire against Gloucestershire at Clifton College Close Ground, except that he did not take the field as play was restricted by bad weather to just 72 overs of his team's first innings, in which they reached 102–2. 1895 to 1903 Barnes played only three more times for Warwickshire: twice in May 1895 and once in June 1896. He took just three wickets in these matches, having bowled 86 overs and conceded 226 runs. Barnes finished with Warwickshire after they invited him to play in a match and then sent him a telegram telling him not to come because an amateur would be playing. So, he chose to play mostly for Rishton from 1895 to 1899, making 38 appearances and taking 411 wickets, his best season being 1898 when he took 96 wickets at 8.46. Barnes had been a fast bowler with Warwickshire but in his time at Rishton he reduced his pace to medium fast and experimented with spin. Barnes's association with Lancashire began in 1899 when he played for the club's Second XI against Staffordshire in a match at the County Ground, Stoke-on-Trent, on 10 and 11 July. He