Sporting Bygones: Recalling the dual talents of Huddersfield-born star Watson

In those hard times there was no lottery, governing grants or Sport England; instead there was something called the Olympic Fund, a well-meaning but seriously limited body trying desperately to improve the athletes' lot on the 1948 Games in London, when packed lunches and bunk-bed accommodation had stretched the frugal budget.

It was in aid of the Olympic Fund that Yorkshire cricketers agreed to a double fixture at Bradford Park Avenue in April 1952, taking on the footballers at their own game and then at cricket. Eddie Leadbeater scored in a 3-1 defeat but Yorkshire had their revenge with a 77-run success at the other side of the football stand.

Cricketers playing football and vice versa was much more common in the Fifties than now.

Brian Close was an accomplished footballer, being signed by Arsenal and playing briefly for Bradford City before serious injury persuaded him that the future was in flannels.

As a boy Vic Wilson had trials with Leeds United; Fred Trueman captained RAF Hemswell at football during his National Service and attracted the attentions of Lincoln City; Norman Yardley was an all-rounder, winning four cricket Blues at Cambridge, excelling at hockey and squash and being one of those infuriating men – like Close – who could play any sport.

But the best of the cricketing footballers on duty that day at Park Avenue was the regal Willie Watson, of Huddersfield Town, Sunderland and England as well as Yorkshire, Leicestershire and England.

Watson was born into football, being christened "Willie" to differentiate him from his father Billy, one of the great players in the Huddersfield side which in the Twenties famously became the first to win three successive League championships.

The young Watson made an impression early in life, playing for Paddock in the Huddersfield League and the town's representative side at football. He opted not to take up a place at grammar school – they did not play football – and instead started work at 14, earning a meagre seven shillings (35p) per week for sweeping floors.

At 15 he was signed by Town where his father was by now a member of the coaching staff but nepotism was never mentioned; the youngster obviously had the talent to reach the top and he made his debut on the left wing in the 1938-9 season, the winter after he had made his Yorkshire debut, starting with three successive noughts.

The outbreak of hostilities saw him conscripted and he quickly made his way into the Army side, playing alongside men like Matt Busby, Frank Swift, Tommy Lawton and Tom Finney and impressing enough to be picked for England in the "Victory" international against Wales, for which full caps were not awarded.

With the return of peace Watson went back to Huddersfield but was unhappy at his continued selection on the wing and asked to be moved inside. Such presumption – even from Billy Watson's lad – was not acceptable and he was promptly sold to Sunderland, then one of the powers in English football.

By now Watson's years were planned according to the respective football and cricket seasons. He went straight into the Yorkshire team which won the Championship under Brian Sellers in 1946 and after a spell opening the innings with Len Hutton soon moved down the order and established himself at No 5.

Now settled at right-half (right-sided midfield in today's parlance) he earned full recognition by the Football Association's selectors with games against Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales and he was a member of the team ignominiously beaten 1-0 by the United States at Belo Horizonte during the World Cup in Brazil in the summer of 1950.

He survived that calamity to play more England games but his success with the bat now began to take precedence, a situation cemented by selection for England, the first of his 23 caps coming against South Africa at Trent Bridge in June 1951 when he scored 57 in his first innings.

By far his most important innings for England came in the second Test of the 1953 Ashes series at Lord's. The first match – for which Watson had not been picked – had been drawn and England appeared on the brink of defeat on the final day.

Needing 343 to win, they had slumped to 20-3 by the close of the previous day, Hutton, Tom Graveney and Don Kenyon all back in the pavilion; not losing was the priority when Watson and Denis Compton – another dual international – walked through the Long Room to resume the innings.

Compton had made 33 when he was dismissed and Trevor Bailey was next in. He and Watson, who was making his first appearance in an Ashes Test, then proceeded to frustrate Lindsay Hassett's Australians for four hours and 17 minutes during which they added 163 runs.

This was the innings which first brought the serious nature of Test cricket to the notice of one youngster in deepest Yorkshire as the wireless was the centre of attention at lunchtime then straight after school until the close.

It seemed the whole country – or at least that part of it not working – was listening to the BBC as Bailey and "our Willie" saved the day for England. Each edition of the evening paper arrived trumpeting their defiance and was snatched up eagerly. It was as if we were in the midst of some momentous battle, which, of course, we were.

Watson's century took over five precious hours and ended when he was caught at slip, Bailey following soon after but Australia had run out of time and Godfrey Evans together with Freddie Brown ensured the draw was achieved. The following two matches were also drawn but Hutton's England triumphed by eight wickets at The Oval in the last Test of Coronation Summer.

The Ashes were won but Watson had been dropped after the fourth match and he was not among the party which travelled to Australia to retain the Ashes in the winter of 1954-5.

Watson was recalled to the national colours for the 1958-9 tour of Australia but by then was a Leicestershire player, having taken up an appointment as assistant secretary and scoring enough runs to impress the selectors. His footballing prowess had diminished during the previous few winters and he left Roker Park for Halifax Town, where he was player-manager, and he began a new career in 1968 when he was appointed coach at the Wanderers club in Johannesburg.

He spent the rest of his life in Africa, returning to England to watch Test matches, but he never sought the limelight, preferring, as he had throughout his career as both cricketer and footballer, to go quietly about his business, talking quietly to friends in the background rather than pushing to the front.

That was the modest style of Willie Watson, a man whose talents were not perhaps fully recognised in his prime or afterwards but a great Yorkshire sportsman for all that – and a footballer who became a national hero at cricket that day at Lord's in 1953.