Jim Cumbes tells incredible story of his double life as goalkeeper and cricketer

Fumbling with his bootlaces, and struggling to turn the spaghetti into orderly knots, Jim Cumbes was greeted by a voice across the dressing room.

West Bromwich Albion's new signing had just become Britain's third most expensive goalkeeper, behind Gordon Banks and Alex Stepney, and he was a bundle of nerves before his debut against Arsenal.

“What's this? We've paid £35,000 for a fast bowler,” piped up England striker Jeff Astle with a stand-up comic's timing.

Cumbes, who juggled football with his alternative incarnation as a first-class cricketer and purveyor of nifty outswingers, was not the last professional to double up between goalposts and bat and ball.

But as former England bowler Mike Selvey reminded him on Twitter recently, he is the only man to play in both a major Wembley final and a Lord's cup final.

Cumbes, now 77, was Aston Villa's No.1 in the 1975 League Cup final win over Norwich, settled by Ray Graydon's late goal on the rebound after his penalty had been saved.

Six months earlier, he had won the county championship with Worcestershire and the previous year, he was in their side beaten by 39 runs in the Benson and Hedges Cup final by Kent.

With England's cricketers heading off to the Caribbean – without their two most successful bowlers of all time Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, which is barmy – and Liverpool's League Cup final duel against Chelsea barely a week away, Cumbes is in nostalgic mood.

He made 376 League appearances, spanning 13 years, for Tranmere, West Brom and Villa before an encore in the United States with Portland Timbers, where he was affectionately christened 'Big Foot' because of his long clearances.

Almost symmetrically, Cumbes took 379 wickets in first-class cricket for