Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their sporting ability, dozens of Englishmen have played both professional football and professional cricket during their careers.
While the all-year-round demands of both now mean the possibility of the same individual kicking, heading, hitting and bowling a ball has evaporated, there was once a time when men spent their winters on one pitch, and their summers on another.
Among those who played both sports to a professional level were those for whom cricket was their No1 sport like England internationals Ian Botham (Somerset and Scunthorpe United), Brian Close (Yorkshire and Bradford City) and Denis Compton (Middlesex and Arsenal), and those for whom football prevailed such as West Ham United and England legend Sir Geoff Hurst and war-time guest player Ted Drake, who wielded the willow for Essex and Hampshire respectively.
Another who was paid to play both sports – in a time when cricketers were paid for only the part of the year they played – was the Hammers’ FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup-winning goalkeeper Jim Standen, who celebrates his 88th birthday on Tuesday 30 May.
Born in Edmonton in north London on 30 May 1935, Standen kicked-off his football career with Arsenal in 1953, backing-up Wales international Jack Kelsey for a number of seasons and playing 35 First Division matches before moving to newly-relegated Second Division club Luton Town in 1960.
Two years later, a broken leg suffered by West Ham’s No1 Lawrie Leslie in November 1962 saw Ron Greenwood move for Standen’s services and he immediately hit the ground running in Claret and Blue, making 23 appearances as West Ham finished in mid-table and reached the FA Cup quarter-finals in the spring of 1963.
After establishing himself at the Boleyn Ground, he then excelled in his whites during the summer of 1963, producing a match-winning performance in Worcestershire’s inaugural Gillette Cup one-day match, before missing the final to play for West Ham at Sheffield United in September 1963!
That season, 1963/64, Leslie departed for Stoke City and Standen was Greenwood’s first-choice between the sticks, but that was just the start of an amazing 12 months of personal and collective achievement.
For starters, Standen played 53 times for the Hammers that campaign, including all 14 ties as West Ham reached the League Cup semi-finals and won the FA Cup for the first time in the Club’s history by beating Preston North End 3-2 at Wembley.
While modern-day footballers would either celebrate that success with a holiday or be preparing for a summer international tournament, Standen instead packed away his football boots and unpacked his cricket boots before making the relatively short drive to Dartford.
There, on 23 May 1964, three weeks after climbing the steps to Wembley’s Royal Box to collect his FA Cup winner’s medal, JA Standen was caught Richardson bowled Dixon for 22 in Worcestershire’s total of 185 all out, before sending down seven overs of right-arm seamers as Kent were skittled for just 106.
After his teammates had piled up 266 for four before declaring their second innings, Standen took two wickets as Kent were bundled out for 115, securing a thumping 230-run win for Worcestershire.
Over the next three months, Standen was, quite simply, the best bowler in the country, taking a County Championship-leading 52 wickets at a staggering average of 14.42 runs apiece!
That performance helped Worcestershire romp to the title by a huge 41-point margin, winning 18 and losing just three of their 28 matches.
Before then, however, on 15 August, he had changed his footwear and donned a pair of goalkeeping gloves again as West Ham returned to Wembley to face Liverpool in the Charity Shield, which ended 2-2.
The following year, in May 1965, he was back at the Home of Football and keeping a clean sheet as West Ham defeated TSV 1860 Munich of West Germany 2-0 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup - the first and, so far, only major European trophy in the Club's history!
Standen would remain the Hammers’ No1 for the next three seasons before losing his place to Bobby Ferguson in 1967, while his cricket career would yield 313 first-class wickets before he retired in 1970 to run two sports shops.
He later emigrated to the United States, where he lives in California with his family.
Everyone at West Ham United would like to wish Jim a very happy birthday!
