Cumbes recalls 'double life'

Jim Cumbes (centre) during NatWest CricketForce 2006 at Darwen

Jim Cumbes lived a double life for most of his 20-year career in professional sport.

For, like sporting legends Denis Compton and Willie Watson, Cumbes was a member of the elite band who played top-flight football and cricket.

A fast bowler, Cumbes embarked on his cricket career in 1962 and went on to play 161 first-class matches and 127 one-day games for Lancashire, Surrey, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

And after cutting his teeth in non-league football with Runcorn, he made 376 league appearances in goal for Tranmere, West Brom and Aston Villa.

His £35,000 transfer from Tranmere to West Brom in 1969 was then the second highest fee paid for a goalkeeper - behind England legend Gordon Banks' £52,000 move from Leicester to Stoke in 1967.

Yet his route into professional football was, to say the least, unconventional.

Jim Cumbes (right) and ECB chief exec David Collier join in the fun during NatWest CricketForce 2006 at Wythenshawe CC

"I turned out in goal for Lancashire Cricketers in a charity game," recalls Cumbes, 62, Lancashire's chief executive since 1997.

"And afterwards I was asked where I played my football during the winter. I had to admit I hadn't played seriously since leaving school.

"The next thing I knew, I was offered the chance to be Runcorn's reserve keeper. I made it into the first team the following year and after we'd played Tranmere in a Cheshire Cup final, they bought me for £1,250 and I was on my way!"

He went on to play 137 league games for the Birkenhead club but struggled to make the same progress in a Lancashire seam attack that featured four England bowlers past, present and future.

So when Surrey came calling in 1968, Cumbes moved south, taking 93 wickets in 29 matches over the next two seasons - and attracting the attention of the England selectors.

"In 1969 I topped the national averages at one stage," says Cumbes, who enjoys the dubious distinction of never having scored a first-class 50.

"And as Tranmere were refusing to give me a pay increase from £25 to £30 a week, I told them I'd see out the season at Surrey before returning to football.

"Soon afterwards, I heard I was in the running for the final Test against New Zealand and a possible place on the winter tour to India. But just before they picked the team, Tranmere offered me a new contract and it was back to football.

"I moved to West Brom soon afterwards and from then on, cricket had to take a back seat for a few years.

"They were a top-flight club and unlike Tranmere, there was no chance of being allowed to end the season a couple of weeks early if we weren't in contention - or reporting back a bit later than the rest of the players.

"Even so, Albion and later Villa were happy for me to play a bit of cricket during the summer. I suppose they preferred me to play some sport instead of lying around on the beach in Marbella for a month.

"In fact I didn't have a proper summer holiday for something like 17 years - although everyone told me my career was just one long holiday, anyway!"

Cumbes, who helped Worcester lift the County Championship in 1974, retired from professional football in 1976 after a season with US club Portland Timbers.

But he spent five more seasons at New Road before joining Warwickshire, where he was appointed commercial manager after retiring in 1982.

He was one of several cricketer-footballers of the 1970s, along with Worcester team-mates Ted Hemsley and Phil Neale, Chris Balderstone and Graham Cross of Leicestershire and Yorkshire's Arnie Sidebottom.

"It couldn't happen now, of course, because the demands at the top level of both sports are so much greater. But I dare say there are a few people out there who are good enough to combine the two as we did.

"Did I fall between two stools by playing both sports? I don't think so, although when I was at West Brom, I was once called in by the manager, Alan Ashman, after a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace.

"He said: 'You played well on Saturday, Jim. Did you know Alf Ramsey was watching?'

"I'd absolutely no idea but apparently Alf had spoken to Alan after the game and asked whether I was English. But that was the last I heard of it."