Ex-goalkeeper Martyn savours England cricket call

The names of those to play both cricket and football for England conjures up the feeling of a very different era: cigarette cards, blazers and the faint whiff of Brylcreem.

Sporting greats of a bygone time such as Denis Compton, CB Fry and Tip Foster are among the 12 men to do it.

Arthur Milton was the last man when he played the first of six Tests in 1958 – seven years after he won his solitary England football cap against Austria.

Another on the verge of joining that pantheon is of a more recent vintage in the form of goalkeeper Nigel Martyn.

Well, kind of…

Martyn, capped 23 times by the Three Lions in football, has forced his way into the reckoning for the England Over-60s cricket team after returning to a sport he has always loved.

He might be a little greyer at the temples but the prospect of becoming a dual international this summer has nevertheless stirred something in him.

“It’s pretty special,” Martyn told BBC Sport.

“Obviously as a professional goalkeeper I wasn’t allowed to play cricket in the summer, as it would threaten breaking fingers and things like that.

“I retired with a stress fracture on my ankle so I didn’t think I was able to play cricket again. But I got the all-clear to do it in about 2011 so I started playing again.”

Martyn got his professional football break for Bristol Rovers in 1987 after being recommended to their then manager Gerry Francis by the club’s tea lady Vi Harris.

The Cornishman later played for Crystal Palace, Leeds and Everton, making 666 league appearances before he retired in 2006.

Martyn still plays club cricket and is currently with Scarcroft CC, just outside Leeds.

A few years ago he helped Knaresborough CC reach the North Yorkshire Premier Division alongside fellow ex-England goalie Paul Robinson.

St Austell-born Martyn’s road to the international fold came off the back of county age-group matches for Cornwall – which necessitate a 800-mile round trip for matches from his Yorkshire home.

“My good friend Sean Hooper, who was the captain of Cornwall Over-50s, spoke to me about six years ago asking if fancied playing for Cornwall,” he said.

“We last played when we were together with Cornwall Schools Under-15s. From there Cornwall recommended me to England.

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“It’s a long trip but being able to go home and see family more often was always the added bonus with it as well.”

Image source, England Seniors

Despite his prior sporting pedigree Martyn, a wicketkeeper, was not shown any preferential treatment when he attended England Over-60s trials at Loughborough University earlier this year.

After a recent intra-squad match he was subsequently picked for the England Over-60s ‘Lions’ squad – the ’emerging’ pool of players who support the full side, which the 59-year-old qualifies for later this year.

“The batting and bowling standard is really, really high,” Martyn said.

“The fielding is the one area where it gets more difficult, but there’s still blokes in their sixties diving around stopping the ball, sprinting after it and throwing it in, it’s quite incredible to watch really.

“I just love playing. If you’re going to play into your 60s and 70s, you’ve got to love it. I love the camaraderie that you get.”

Martyn cited England wicketkeepers Alan Knott and Bob Taylor as men behind the stumps he most admired.

“Because I wanted to be a goalkeeper, I also wanted to be a wicketkeeper,” he explained.

“There’s some transferable skills of hand-eye coordination and I’m sort of used to a round object being either thrown or kicked at me.

“I’ve had several thousand of those things happening to me in my life. So I can seem to get my hands pretty much in the right place most of the time.”

Martyn went to two football World Cups – in 1998 and 2002 – but was understudy to David Seaman so did not make an appearance at either tournament.

He actually turns 60 on 11 August, which has effectively rendered him ineligible for this year’s Over-60s Cricket World Cup in Canada which starts a few days earlier.

The chance to make the XI for a cricket World Cup in the future is on his radar, though.

“That would be great,” Martyn added.

“I trained with the two wicketkeepers picked for the World Cup and they are both excellent, so the competition [for places] does drive you on to push the people ahead of you.

“They’re in spot at the moment, and I’ll just keep doing my thing.”

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