The England goalkeeper who would rather be playing cricket than watching football

Nigel Martyn on Aspin Lane, Knaresborough CC

Nov 18, 2024

The first sporting event I ever remember watching was the 1990 FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Crystal Palace. It was contested at Villa Park, a few miles up the road from where I grew up in Bournville, Birmingham but I enjoyed it through the majesty of BBC Grandstand.

Palace in red and blue stripes, Liverpool in an ugly, classic (if you’ll forgive the oxymoron) all grey ensemble. The game was a bit of an ugly classic too - Palace beating the mighty Reds 4-3, a few months after they’d lost 9-0 in the league to the same opponents.

In goal that day were Bruce Grobbelaar for Liverpool and Nigel Martyn for Palace. Improbably for the five year old me sitting agog at the television I have now met both men. Grobbelaar at a sporting dinner a few years back with material that wouldn’t survive the camera phone age and now Martyn for my podcast, the Ground Jewels - which celebrates special sporting places.

It’s usually a hard and fast rule that I don’t interview sportspeople on the Ground Jewels. This is for two reasons. Firstly, there’s no shortage of sports podcasts with sportspeople appearing on them. Any Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Everton or England podcast would be much improved by having Nigel on as a guest - he’s very personable, articulate and tells a good story.

My second reason for usually giving sportspeople a wide berth is because a professional player’s experience of grounds and stadiums is necessarily atypical and I’m more interested in the fan experience that the likes of Ian McMillan (Oakwell), Simon Inglis (Villa Park) and Jen Offord (The Valley) have so expertly and passionately shared with us over recent months.

It has sometimes gotten me into trouble. I was at a literary festival this year and very kindly a former guest on the show introduced me to a superb cricketer with the line “You’ll have to go on James’ podcast”, which on reflection I shut the door on too quickly.

However, I do like to interview sportspeople when they have a passion for a different sport. See: Charles Dagnall on the Tampa Bay Stadium, Eilidh Doyle on Tynecastle and as of this week… Nigel Martyn on Aspin Lane, Knaresborough.

And what a lovely chat it was, we spoke about his childhood in Cornwall, how he met his wife through cricket, his wicket keeping fitness regime (of course he’s a wicket keeper) and Knaresborough CC’s fantastic 2024 promotion season. When even managed a little football chat.