Port Vale all-rounders: our club’s cricketing connections
It may be the summer and a time when cricket comes to the fore there’s still plenty to connect Port Vale FC with the game of cricket.
Port Vale players and second sports
Professional cricketers
It’s not unusual for athletes who start in one sport to switch to another. This has been the case for several Port Vale players and here are a few examples:
- Arthur Jepson: The Vale goalkeeper signed for Nottinghamshire in 1938, the same year he made his Vale first-team appearance. He made 46 appearances before World War II intervened but he returned in 1946 to make a further six appearances. Although he continued to play football, mainly in the non-league, his cricket career took off and in 1958 he celebrated his 1,000th first-class wicket.
- Ken Higgs: The locally born sportsman was a member of Port Vale’s junior teams but never made a first-team appearance. His cricketing career was more successful when he was spotted playing for Staffordshire and was snapped up by Lancashire. His success was such he was called up to the England Test team and played 15 games for his country.
- Harry Howell: A striker, Howell guested for the Valiants during World War One and scored an impressive nine goals in just eleven games. Clearly a gifted all-round sportsman, Howell also played cricket to a high level and made five England Test appearances including the 1920-21 Ashes series.
- Ian Buxton (top right): The bowler’s cricket career was so successful he ended his Port Vale career to concentrate on it. He was already a regular for Derbyshire when he joined Vale in 1969 and he retired from football at the end of the season to concentrate on cricket full-time.
- Bob Taylor: The long-serving England wicketkeeper, who won 54 Test caps, was on Port Vale’s books as a junior but never made the first-team.
Amateur cricketers
Decades ago, professional sportsmen often needed a second string to their bow in order to bring in an income during the summer months. This lead to a number of Port Vale players playing cricket in the off-season.
- In the club’s early days several players also played cricket – among them were Adrian Capes (right, who played for Staffordshire) as did Albert Cook, Billy Fitchford and Billy Briscoe (to name just three).
- Several of Port Vale’s famed 1953-54 were also cricketers – among them Ken Griffiths, Albert Leake and striker Basil Hayward (the latter bowled for Stafforshire in the minor counties). Goalkeeper Ray King had also played cricket in the North East before joining the club.
- 1930’s Vale regular Harry Griffith also played as wicketkeeper for Meir Heath cricket club. Long-serving Griffith is remembered for colliding with railing during a game with Crewe and suffering a severe head wound. He returned to action the next week wearing a black beret for protection.
- In more recent years, Australian loanee Chris Herd revealed to the press that he was an avid cricketer in his youth, before opting for a footballing career.
Cricket in the family
- Vale took defender Reiss Greenidge on loan from West Brom in 2014. The strapping centre-half was the grandson of legendary West Indies opener Gordon Greenidge. Sadly, the centre-half failed to make an appearance for the first-team.
Top image: Pictured clockwise from top-left are Ken Higgs, Harry Howell, Ian Buxton and Basil Hayward