It has been a decent season so far for Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Financial inequality makes it very difficult for small clubs like LCCC to compete effectively and in recent seasons they have languished at the bottom of the County Championship, the traditional red ball four-day competition. This year, though, the club sits proudly at the top of the Second Division with every chance of promotion.
In the past, particularly in the 1970s, Leicestershire were much more successful, beating much richer counties to win a succession of trophies. Remembering that decade highlights the important role played by two players connected with the city who excelled at both cricket and football.
A lost art
Cricket is now a much more professional game requiring high levels of fitness to play in a much-expanded programme of fixtures and competitions. Gone are the days when it was possible to play both cricket and football professionally. In the past, though, the combination was relatively common. Notable figures such as C.B Fry, Les Ames, and Ian Botham had top level cricket careers whilst also making a handful of appearance for professional football clubs. Even Geoff Hurst played once for Essex in the early 1960s before focusing on a football career that culminated in his goal-scoring heroics at Wembley in 1966. Denis Compton’s role was rarer in that he was one of England’s finest batsmen in the 1940s and 1950s but also made over 50 appearances on the wing for Arsenal winning a league title and the FA Cup in the process.
The Leicester connection
Five men with Leicester connections played both professional cricket and football. Three of these focused on one or the other sport. Locally born striker Jack Lee played 137 games for Leicester City between 1946 and 1950, scoring 84 goals. This was a phenomenal scoring rate although all four of Jack’s seasons with LCFC were in football’s second tier. He scored the goal in 1949 that prevented relegation to the old Third Division. Lee was sold, much to the City fan’s disdain, to Derby County where he won his solitary England cap. His replacement at Filbert Street was the great Arthur Rowley. Less well known is the fact that Jack also made one appearance for LCCC in 1947.
Two others with Leicester connections were mainly cricketers. Arthur Mounteney made 30 appearances for Leicester Fosse between 1903 and 1905 and also played for Leicestershire from 1911 until 1924 (whilst playing football for Grimsby Town) scoring 5,306 runs including six centuries. The other was Maurice Tompkin who played a few matches for Huddersfield Town and 378 first class matches for LCCC from 1938-56 scoring nearly 20,000 runs.
Two Leicester sporting legends
Leicester’s two best known footballing cricketers were equally successful in both sports. Chris Balderstone played professional football, mainly for Carlisle United, where he made 376 appearances between 1965-75. He was a key player in the North Western club’s most successful period where they played in the second tier and, for one season, in Division One. Brought to Leicestershire from Yorkshire in the early 1970s, he played a pivotal role as a batsman in Ray Illingworth’s great side who, in a golden era for the club, won five trophies including the County Championship for the first time. He regularly passed 1,000 runs for the season and was rewarded, in 1976, with a call-up to the England team for the series against the, then mighty, West Indians. He remains the only sportsman to play first class cricket and league football on the same day!
Even more significant for Leicester aficionados is Graham Cross. Leicester born and bred, Cross made more appearances for the club than any other player so far. If you include the Charity Shield game at the start of the 1971/2 season, Graham played 600 times for the Foxes between 1961-1975, and all but 84 of his 498 league games were in the top-flight. He was a stocky, tough-tackling and busy player who earned the nickname ‘The Tank’. Initially playing in a variety of positions he settled at centre-half when two central defenders became the norm. Graham played in four cup finals, won a Division Two Championship medal and was part of the victorious City side that beat Liverpool in the 1971 Charity Shield. He rates as the fifth best ever City defender in our rankings.
A cricketing all-rounder, Graham played for LCCC between 1961 and 1977 featuring in 83 first class matches scoring 2,079 runs and taking 92 wickets. Like Balderstone, Cross was a member of the trophy-winning outfit in the 1970s. Somewhat ironically, given that his football commitments limited his availability for cricket, it was his refusal to report back for pre-season training before the start of the 1975/76 season (because of his role in helping Leicestershire County Cricket Club win their first ever County Championship) that marked the beginning of the end for Cross at Filbert Street.