Chris Balderstone

John Christopher Balderstone (16 November 1940 – 6 March 2000) was an English professional in cricket and football, and one of the last sportsmen to combine both sports over a prolonged period.

He played football as a midfielder for Huddersfield Town, Carlisle United, Doncaster Rovers and Queen of the South.

Balderstone's football career started with Huddersfield Town where he was signed by Bill Shankly in May 1958.

He made 117 Football League appearances for Huddersfield, and played a total of 131 senior games for them (scoring 25 goals).

Balderstone first appeared for Yorkshire on 10 June 1961.

Balderstone later remembered, "Ray Illingworth took me to Leicestershire. I might be a decent bloke on the outside but he knew I was mentally hard through football. Cricketers might think they're pretty hard but they're not compared to footballers. It was a great move for me."

In June 1965 he moved for £7,000 to Carlisle United who had just been promoted to the second tier of English football for the first time in their history.

As Balderstone later said, "They gave me a bit of stick at first because I wasn't the quickest player or the hardest tackler. I used to think I made up for it with speed of thought and control of the ball. I always had confidence in my ability and I knew there'd be somebody in the crowd who appreciated a bit of skill. I won them over and they were very good to me after that."

He scored on his debut, a 4–1 home win over Norwich City, which gave him the distinction of scoring the club's first ever goal in the second level of English football.

He stayed with Carlisle for the next 11 years, the club's most successful period where not only was he a key player but also became club captain.

His most notable cup run was in the 1969–70 League Cup where Carlisle made it to the semi-final.

In a long club career, he was a key part of the five trophy winning Leicestershire side of the early and mid-1970s.

He enjoyed other successes in cup competitions, "In 1970 we beat Manchester City in the League Cup when they had Lee, Bell and Summerbee. And in '74 we beat Sunderland at Roker Park in the FA Cup when they were the Cup holders. We played against Liverpool in the next round and took them to a replay."

Leicestershire won their first-ever trophy in 1972, the inaugural Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord's, and Balderstone took the man of the match Gold Award.

He scored 41 not out and steered the team to the trophy.

This marked the beginning of a golden era for Leicestershire, with 5 trophies in 5 seasons, and Balderstone was at the core of the side.

In 1973–74 Balderstone enjoyed promotion to the First Division, then the highest level in the English football pyramid.

In 1973 Balderstone played his first full season of cricket and jumped right to the front-rank of English batsmen, making 1,222 runs at an average of 42.

He passed the 1,000-run mark in 10 of the next 12 seasons, batting either in the middle order or as an opening batsman.

It was Balderstone's penalty against Pat Jennings and Tottenham Hotspur that had Carlisle briefly topping England's Football League after the first 3 games of the 1974–75 season.

However, Carlisle were relegated at the end of the season, the only relegation in Balderstone's career.

In all he made 376 League appearances for the Cumbrian club.

Balderstone joined Doncaster Rovers after his top-level season with Carlisle.

It was when with Rovers he became the only player to play League Football and first-class cricket on the same day (see Cricket Career under Leicestershire section).

Balderstone's next club was in Scotland.

"Queen of the South rang me up. Carlisle used to play practice matches against them and they remembered me. I caught the train to Dumfries from Leicester every Friday night. It was quite a trek but it gave me another couple of years football."

When George Cloy and Crawford Boyd were each later interviewed for the Queen of the South website, each commented on Balderstone's ability with the ball.

Cloy in particular said Balderstone's passing ability was the best in Cloy's entire career at Queens.

He later played for non-league Enderby Town.

In 1974, he top scored for his side in the Benson and Hedges final but they were defeated by Surrey.

However, they did win the Sunday League, bettering their runners-up spot of two years before.

His runs were an important part of Leicestershire's first County Championship success in 1975, and he weighed in with 43 useful wickets in that season too.

Balderstone made history on 15 September 1975 by taking part in a County Championship match and a Football League game on the same day.

Balderstone was 51 not out against Derbyshire at the end of day two of Leicestershire's match at Chesterfield.

After close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away (a 1–1 draw with Brentford).

He then returned to Chesterfield the following morning to complete a century and take three wickets to help wrap up Leicestershire's first ever County Championship title.

He played and umpired in first-class cricket making it to international level – he played in two Tests in 1976 and umpired in two ODIs between 1994 and 1998.

Among his many personal notes was in 1976 when he did the hat-trick against Sussex at Eastbourne.

Five years later, against Essex at Grace Road, Leicestershire's home ground, he shared an unbroken county record second wicket stand of 289 with David Gower.

In 1977 Leicestershire won their last trophy in this period, a second Sunday League victory.