Flashback to 1969

IN May 1969 Bradford City clinched promotion to the old Division Three with a nail biting, not to mention frenetic, 4-3 victory at Darlington in a Friday night game.

The following day The Pink, the 'Yorkshire Sports', was full of City's achievement but, amid the pictures from the game and of the players and club officials, there was a Bradford Cricket League story inside the back page with news of a new captain at Keighley Cricket Club - Mike Hellawell.

The article in the Pink

Mike Hellawell in his Huddersfield Town days.

Mike holds a special place in Bradford Cricket League history for he is the only post war English international footballer to appear in the league. But, Hellawell has always considered himself a cricketer who took up football rather than the other way around, as he explained.

Growing up I was always thought of as having more chance of a professional cricket career," he told me recently. "My dad was a professional Rugby League player with Keighley while I was always more interested in cricket and football.

"In fact I was actually playing for Salts 2ndXI at 10 years old and I was only 12 when I made my first team debut against Undercliffe. Undercliffe had the old Yorkshire and England keeper Arthur Wood at that time and I remember him talking to me alll the way through my innings.

There was no 'sledging' - no trying to intimidate me or put me off - Arthur just kept talking and encouraging me. I've no idea how many I made that day, or how long I was in for, but I'll never forget Arthur's encouragement.  

"As a youngster I was also invited down to the nets at Headingley and it was a great experience to come under the coaching of Arthur Mitchell and Maurice Leyland. Like I say, I was always considered a better cricketer than footballer and my first senior soccer club was my local side - Salts."  

It was in 1955, while he was playing football at then Yorkshire League side Salts in the old FA Amateur Cup, that Mike was spotted by a Queen's Park Rangers scout and invited to sign for the West London club. Not being on a contract at Salts, in those strictly amateur days, QPR were under no obligation to give Salts a penny but in the end they made an-ex gratia payment, probably working out at about £5,000 by today's value, and it was enough for the club to build new dressing rooms.  

At QPR Mike got his first taste of repesentative football when he was selected to play, as a right winger, for the Third Division South against the Third Division North in a match televised live one midweek evening and it was not too long before bigger clubs began looking at the wiry, and very pacy, winger.

In 1957 he was then signed by First Division Birmingham City and having won the Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1961 (the fore-runner of the UEFA Cup) he went on to win two England caps in 1963.  

Interestingly Mike also played for Warwickshire seconds during his time at Birmingham and made one first class appearance for the County - one of only seven post war full English soccer internationals to play first class cricket.

Aany quiz enthusiasts want to name the other SIX? Want a clue? Well, the counties involved were Middlesex, Derbyshire, Essex, Kent, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.  

While on the subject of quizzes, anyone like to have a look at the gallery of Bradford City's promotion winning group of players and officials and say how many have strong Bradford League connections (I counted Five) - and what are the connections, and which two were Central Yorkshire League and Halifax League stars respectively?  

Going back to Mike Hellawell, he arrived back in this area after moving from Birmingham to Sunderland and then on to Huddersfield Town and Peterborough before settling back in Keighley to run a greengrocers shop in the town centre. He enjoyed some success with Keighley at cricket, winning the Priestley Cup in 1961, but he didn't really have anything tangible to show for his spell as skipper and later moved into the Craven League for a short while.