Jimmy Cumbes

[montague]

Nice piece in the Times today about having a career in both football and cricket, with a few Villa memories included. It doesnt mention that he had probably the biggest drop kick of any goalkeeper ever. Many a time I have seen him launch it into the oppo box, sometimes over their goal line, and that was with the old leather balls. Today hed probably clear the top of the Holte end.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cricket/article3618233.ece

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

He arrived when we were in the 3rd division to replace Tommy Hughes who had been having a bit of a nightmare.
Yes he did have a massive kick, more than once he launched a ball from the edge of the box into the oppostion box with one bounce for somebody to then smash into the net first time. He also had a massive throw, being able to throw the ball as far as some keepers could kick it.
He always seemed to have a smile on his face or was laughing. Although I remember it did get on my nerves once in a game at Leyton Orient. Vic Crowe had decided to play with three centre halves which didn't work as we were torn apart and were three or four down. I was becoming increasingly agitated and the final straw was seeing Jim smiling and laughing with the crowd behind him before taking a goal kick. How dare he be so happy when we losing so heavily ! I'm sure the reality was it was hurting him as much as us fans though, he was a very good keeper and a very good professional.   

[PGW]

I remember his debut fondly - the previous week we had been humbled in the 1st rd of the FA cup by little 'Southend Utd' 1 - 0 a disgraceful performance and during the week Vic Crowe signed 'big' Jim Cumbes and he made his debut the following Saturday at Oldham Athletic where we ran riot winning 6 - 0 with Willie Anderson, a hat trick from Andy Lochhead plus a couple from Bruce Rioch. Remember Manchester's finest joining us at that game and along with Oldham's fans took great delight in chasing us off 'their' end up to the open end where peee'd down throughout game then the fun and games really started getting back to the station.....well worth it 6-0 away cant be bad!!!!

[Oscar Arce]

It's funny things always seem better when you look back and I agree, big Jim was a great character, but I also remember him having more than a few 'nightmares' and against the Albion he virtually threw Bomber Brown's speculative shot into the net !  Also I never forgave him for hosting his infamous 'Bonfire Night Party' when Giddy nearly got blinded !

[Dave Summers]

It's funny things always seem better when you look back and I agree, big Jim was a great character, but I also remember him having more than a few 'nightmares' and against the Albion he virtually threw Bomber Brown's speculative shot into the net !  Also I never forgave him for hosting his infamous 'Bonfire Night Party' when Giddy nearly got blinded !

I also remember when I was a young lad being at the Hawthorns when he threw Willie Johnson's corner in to the net at the Brummie Road End.  Was Boxing day 73 or 74 I think and it ruined my Christmas and boy did I sob my socks off that night.

Despite that I did like Jimmy and he was right for the club at the time, as was Burridge who replaced him and then Rimmer who replaced Budgie.

[Ron Manager]

Im sure Ive posted this before but Jim had a habit of dropping the ball under no great pressure. He was especially culpable at Antwerp where he had in modern terminology 'a mare'

Jim  popped into The Sportsman at Harborne occasionally for medicinal refreshment. This kid wanted his autograph and handed Jim a biro which Jim promptly dropped and then burst out laughing as we all did.

Great sense of humour and a really good goalkeeper when he was on form.

[nigel]

Wasn't he also a 'Chief Exec' too?
Although I think it was at Warks. and Lancs. CCC's I reckon he would have been great working alongside Paul Faulkner to give him a touch of experience as a sports exec.

[Flamingo Lane]

I also remember when I was a young lad being at the Hawthorns when he threw Willie Johnson's corner in to the net at the Brummie Road End.  Was Boxing day 73 or 74 I think and it ruined my Christmas and boy did I sob my socks off that night.

38 years on the memory still hurts for me.

[Pat McMahon]

He arrived when we were in the 3rd division to replace Tommy Hughes who had been having a bit of a nightmare.
Yes he did have a massive kick, more than once he launched a ball from the edge of the box into the oppostion box with one bounce for somebody to then smash into the net first time. He also had a massive throw, being able to throw the ball as far as some keepers could kick it.
He always seemed to have a smile on his face or was laughing. Although I remember it did get on my nerves once in a game at Leyton Orient. Vic Crowe had decided to play with three centre halves which didn't work as we were torn apart and were three or four down. I was becoming increasingly agitated and the final straw was seeing Jim smiling and laughing with the crowd behind him before taking a goal kick. How dare he be so happy when we losing so heavily ! I'm sure the reality was it was hurting him as much as us fans though, he was a very good keeper and a very good professional.   

Andy, was that the game when Ian Ross broke his leg and after which Vic Crowe made shinpads compulsory?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I also remember when I was a young lad being at the Hawthorns when he threw Willie Johnson's corner in to the net at the Brummie Road End.  Was Boxing day 73 or 74 I think and it ruined my Christmas and boy did I sob my socks off that night.

38 years on the memory still hurts for me.

Same here. The Rags had acident prone Gary Spake and we had Jimmy. Both could successfully throw the ball into their own net.
Fortunately Jimmy had far more good days than bad. Maybe it's because I was a nipper at the time but Jimmy must have been the biggest keeper we ever had. The man was huge. As for his kick, and this was a time when goalkeepers rarely threw the ball, it was a massive advantage for us especially when we had Andy Lockhead and later Keith Leonard to knock the ball on.

Can somebody put that Times article up on here. I only get the first paragraph.

[Dave Clark Five]

One occasion where Jim's big kick paid off for us was at home against Shrewsbury. We were struggling to break them down. A black cat ran across the pitch. Jim hoofed the ball upfield, where after one bounce, Andy Lochhead had rifled it into the Witton End goal.
I remember that Oldham away debut. We remained in the home end throughout the game. On coming out of the ground, it was pissing down and pitch black. I walked into a barbed wire fence and cut my face. It was kicking off in the street so we just got on a bus to the station.
We have met Jim a few times since then; most recently at the cricket at Old Trafford then in the Lions Club with Sammy Morgan. He is still laughing all the time and looks no different.

[montague]

The times article for those who cannot open the link:


Jim Cumbes, the ultimate all-rounder, looks back on best of both worlds

To anybody under the age of 30 the life of Jim Cumbes must sound like the stuff of fiction. He kept goal against Pelé and bowled to Sir Garry Sobers. He played at Wembley and Lord’s, and won League Cup and County Championship medals within six months. He was one of the last men to live the dream: cricket in winter, football in summer.

At 68, Cumbes is about to leave sport for good. The sometime fast bowler, sometime goalkeeper and latterly plain-speaking cricket administrator steps down at the end of the year after 14 years as the Lancashire chief executive. His biggest victory in nearly 50 years of competition was his last big project, securing Old Trafford’s Ashes future with a £42 million redevelopment.

From 1963 to 1982 he played 161 first-class cricket matches for Lancashire, Surrey, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, as well as 376 Football League games for Tranmere Rovers, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Southport. He also squeezed in a summer with Portland Timbers in the North American Soccer League.

He was not unusual for his day. The likes of Graham Cross, Ted Hemsley and Phil Neale also followed a double life in the same era. But things have long changed. Twelve-month contracts are the norm in cricket and those county players not overseas are already preparing for next April. As for football clubs, they deter even their juniors from playing cricket as they seek absolute commitment.

“You have to choose one or the other,” Cumbes said. “I feel very lucky to have been around at a time when you could do both.” Given the disparity in wages, cricket is the loser, and Phil Neville is merely one to miss out. “Geoff Ogden, who was our cricket committee chairman for a long time saw Phil bat at school and thought he could have played for England,” Cumbes said. A few years ago, Cumbes found himself having to make small talk with Sir Alex Ferguson at what he calls “the other Old Trafford”. “I asked him how Philip was getting on,” Cumbes said. “Fergie said he was very happy with him. Then he paused, and said ‘so you’re not having him for your f***ing cricket.’ ”

Cumbes never earned more than £60 a week in football (at West Brom and Villa) or £900 for a season at Worcestershire. “Everybody was more laid-back then,” he said. “If we were two or three games from the end of the football season and mid-table I could go back to cricket. Going the other way, the counties would give me some leeway with pre-season training. They knew I was fit.”

Some days he would catch crosses in the morning and bowl in the nets in the afternoon. And although he never matched the feat of Chris Balderstone, who played for Leicestershire and Doncaster Rovers on the same day, he did find himself thrust in to the Worcestershire side in 1976 only five days after returning from Portland. “I had not bowled for nearly 12 months but they were desperate because of injuries,” Cumbes said. “And it was against Middlesex, who were top of the table. Fortunately it rained for 2½ days.”

His biggest success came in the West Midlands. He helped Aston Villa to climb from the old third division to the top flight and kept a clean sheet for the team that beat Norwich City in the 1975 League Cup final. The previous September he had helped Worcestershire to win the Championship with 18 wickets in six games, this at a time when football was his priority.

Villa’s ambition stretched to playing foreign opposition to prepare for the days when they would feature in Europe. In 1972, they beat Pelé’s Santos 2-1 on a memorable night in front of 54,000 people at Villa Park. The miners were on strike and Doug Ellis had bought a generator to guarantee power. “Typical Doug,” Cumbes said, “He paid £9,000 for it and sold it for £36,000 a few weeks later when companies were desperate.

“The trouble was, it was only strong enough to power three floodlights. We played with two on behind me in the first half and during the break I asked Vic Crowe, our manager, if they could switch things around as I didn’t fancy facing Pelé in semi-darkness. We got that done, but there was an almighty row and in the end we had to switch things back to get the game going again and I just had to squint.”

Unlike Balderstone, Cumbes never attained England honours. He thinks he came closest in 1969. Two thirds of the way through the cricket season he was tipped off by John Kay, a journalist, that the selectors were looking to pick him for the final Test at the Oval with a view to finding a workhorse bowler to play on the subcontinent that winter. All he had to do was delay his planned return to Tranmere.

But Cumbes had a moral dilemma. He had recently capitalised on speculation that he was being monitored by eight top clubs to negotiate, amid acrimony, a wage rise from £25 to £30 a week. He felt a greater duty to his football club than to his ambition of an England cap. A fortnight or so later, Dave Russell, the manager (“a crafty Scotsman”) had sold him to West Brom for £35,000.

Only once did Cumbes feel scared on a sporting field, and it was nothing to do with facing Mike Procter without a helmet or stopping a Peter Lorimer penalty with only spit to protect his hands. The occasion was the infamous game between Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion in 1971, when a decision by Ray Tinkler, the referee, not to penalise Albion for offside against Colin Suggett, who was tracking back, led to a goal and subsequent pitch invasion.

“They were top of the league, hadn’t lost at home and we had not won away,” Cumbes said. “They thought it was going to be a banker, but we beat them 2-1. It was probably around the start of the hooliganism problem and some of them behind my goal looked like real thugs. They meant business. Police were swarming all over the pitch getting things in order.”

Jelly-legged, Cumbes tried to exude calm as he moved to the centre circle for his own safety. “To this day I think Leeds realised it was a fair goal and were trying it on,” he said. “They were like that, they would do anything. Allan Clarke pulled one back for them late on and in our dressing room afterwards people were saying that he was offside. Had that been disallowed we would have had a riot.”

Head to head with Sobers and Pelé in double life

Jim Cumbes has picked the best five footballers and cricketers he played either with or against

Cricketers

Garry Sobers The best all-rounder. He was world class at everything. But I do remember getting him out for one in a Sunday League game at Dudley with a beautiful little inswinger.

Viv Richards The most dangerous batsman I faced. I bowled a maiden to him once and Norman Gifford ran over to say “well bowled”. I just laughed and said: “He’s taking the p***, Norman.”

Basil D’Oliveira This one may surprise people but he has to be up there for his sheer fighting qualities. He was a tough, tough man, a great bloke to have in your side.

Glenn Turner Of the openers, Geoff Boycott was a super batsman, whatever else he was. But I saw a lot of Glenn at his best at Worcester and he was a vital player for us when we were going well.

Joel Garner I’d love to have played with Brian Statham at Lancashire because he was my hero. Joel just felt the most awkward of the bowlers I faced with his yorker and bounce from a length.

Footballers

George Best I remember once he was on the edge of the box with two defenders in front of him. I looked to my left to check the post was covered and when I turned back he was in front of them. To this day I don’t know how he could have done it so quickly. Genius.

Pelé One of my great claims is when he was at New York Cosmos and I was at Portland. They beat us 3-0, but at the end he came over and gave me a little round of applause. He was built like a colossus, the first footballer I saw with that sort of physique.

Gordon Banks I’d put him just above Pat Jennings. There was an aura about Gordon. He was the same as Pelé and Best, just a cut above the rest. Some of his saves were magical.

Bobby Charlton As midfielders, Colin Bell was superb, Johnny Giles was very good, but a dirty so-and-so. Bruce Rioch had the most dangerous shot. Bobby was that little bit special.

Roy McFarland I think we made our debuts on the same day for Tranmere. He nodded one into his own net, but the ref disallowed it. He was a footballing centre half, but good in the air.

Dual sportsmen – and one woman

CB Fry Perhaps the greatest all-rounder of all, an England footballer and cricketer at the turn of the 20th century who equalled the world long-jump record

JWHT Douglas Won the middleweight boxing gold medal at the 1908 Olympics and captained the England cricket team

Arthur Milton The last of the 12 men to play both football (1951) and cricket (1958-59) for England

MJK Smith His Test career ran from 1958-72, but he also represented England against Wales at rugby union in 1956

Chris Balderstone Made history in 1975 when he played cricket for Leicestershire and football for Doncaster Rovers on the same day

Max Walker Fast bowler who supported Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the 1970s, and also played Australian Rules for Melbourne

Ian Botham England’s greatest cricketing all-rounder made 11 rugged appearances for Scunthorpe United as he tried to recover fitness for his main sport

Jeff Wilson Considered a big loss to New Zealand cricket despite making six one-day international appearances. Scored 44 tries as an All Blacks wing

Ellyse Perry Played football and cricket for Australia at 16 and has gone on to feature in both World Cups. The fastest bowler in the women’s game at present

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Thanks, Montague. Much appreciated.

[steamer]

After the away Antwerp game, we bumped into a crowd of Villa players in a bar.
Cumbes, Phillips, Hamilton ? Morgan, (if Bernie is around he will probably remember better than me)
Sammy Morgam said, " I have done most goalkeepers in the first division and if Cumbes plays like that again, I will fuckin do him as well"
The rest of the night is a blur as we moved from bar to bar and onto the railway station in the very early hours of the morning.
This Though, I remember very well.

[TopDeck113]

Great read.  Was our keeper when I first went down the Villa.  The two things I was in awe of from near the front of the old Witton End: the size of the Holte and the length of Jim's drop kicks.