While Leeds United edge closer to a top-flight return, one of their former greats has already celebrated Premier League promotion.
Nigel Martyn hung up his football boots almost two decades ago due to a chronic ankle injury. But at the age of 58, the ex-England goalkeeper is back starring in gloves – this time as a wicketkeeper. And the Whites legend enjoyed success in whites last summer, helping Knaresborough reach the ECB Yorkshire Premier League North, the top tier of club cricket, after winning the Championship West division.
‘There’s nothing better in sport than winning something with your mates,’ says the affable Martyn, sitting in the sun outside the Knaresborough Cricket Club pavilion, a short walk from his home in the market town near Harrogate. ‘Obviously, it’s bigger if you are doing it for a professional team, but it doesn’t mean any more to the person. It’s just the same. I take it seriously.’
Martyn is now gearing up for the start of Knaresborough’s 2025 campaign on Saturday – a date he has been counting down to since the end of last season. He shows Mail Sport an app on his phone called ‘Big Day’, which displays the days remaining until April 26, alongside a photo of him taking a diving catch.
‘Cricket was always my first love,’ explains Martyn. ‘I was just better at football and football then took over from 1987 to 2006. But if it’s toss-up between the big game or a Test match on the telly, then the cricket is on.’
Martyn’s enthusiasm for the sport, however, recently took a bit of a knock. Despite being a mainstay of the Knaresborough first XI for six years, the specialist gloveman has been told he will start the new season in the seconds to make way for a stronger batter – dealing a blow to his ambition of playing in the Premier League, where Yorkshire stars often turn out.
Leeds great Nigel Martyn is starring as a wicketkeeper nearly two decades after his retirement
Martyn, now 58, was Leeds No1 goalkeeper for six years after joining from Crystal Palace
Martyn has been a mainstay of the Knaresborough XI for six years but is now in the seconds
‘I still feel a bit disappointed,’ admits Martyn, who also plays for his home county Cornwall in the ECB Over 50s County Championship. ‘For me, sport is to be played at the highest level you can get to and I wanted to experience that.
‘But I won’t throw my toys out of pram and skulk off. I’ll be playing in the twos, keeping my standards as high as I can and be ready and available should the first team need me. I had this with England and David Seaman!’
Martyn took 14 catches and seven stumpings for Knaresborough last season, with a top score of 15 not out, although he mainly batted at No11. Asked for his all-time sporting highlight, he cites hitting a straight six for his old club Leeds Modernians to beat Green Lane and seal promotion to Division Two of the Airedale and Wharfedale League in 2016. ‘The feeling that gave me was as good as anything I’ve ever had in football,’ he says.
From personal experience of playing against Martyn, he is talkative behind the stumps but does not sledge. Does he receive much chat himself? ‘I get the occasional, “You should stick to football” comment,’ he says. ‘But most people just have a laugh with you.’
One of his biggest laughs came a couple of seasons ago following a prank played by opponents Whitkirk. ‘A bowler got me out and, completely unbeknown to me, his team-mates wrote a letter to him pretending to be me, saying what a good ball it was,’ chuckles Martyn. ‘Apparently he was all over it and even put the letter up in his shed!
‘When we played them again, their lads told me what they’d done and asked if I’d mind going with it. So I said to the bowler, “Did you get my letter OK?”. They were all in the background absolutely loving it. He was mortified he had fallen for it.’
Another funny moment came when Martyn shared a dressing room with his former Leeds team-mate Paul Robinson, whose son was in the Knaresborough junior set-up.
‘We were really short one weekend and I asked him if he would help us out,’ Martyn explains. ‘Robbo used to be my boot boy when I first went to Leeds, so at the end of the game, I took my cricket shoes over to him and said, “Can you get them ready for next week for me?”. The lads were killing themselves!’
Cricket was Martyn’s first big love but football took over during his career from 1987 to 2006
Martyn joined members of the England cricket team during a training session back in 2017
Martyn spent much of his England career as the second choice behind David Seaman
Martyn won 23 caps for England and was part of four squads at major tournaments
Robinson ended up being the goalkeeper who ousted Martyn as Leeds’ No1 after Terry Venables replaced David O’Leary as boss in the summer of 2002.
Martyn remembers returning exhausted from the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where he was an unused England squad member, and being told he was expected to travel on the Whites’ pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia.
He informed Eddie Gray – who was taking charge of training with Venables mysteriously absent – he did not want to go. The next day, Martyn was asked to go inside to take a phone call from the manager.
‘Terry was like, “I can’t have my senior players not coming on this trip. If you don’t come, you’ll never play for Leeds United again”,’ recalls Martyn. ‘I said, “Terry, the way I’m feeling at the moment, I don’t care”. I walked out and said to the secretary, “He’s been manager for a while now, where is he?”. She said, “He’s just filming Wish You Were Here…?”.
‘The next day he was in and I was training with the kids. I sat on the bench for the whole of that season before going to Everton.’
It was a sad end to Martyn’s successful stint at Leeds, who he joined in 1996 from Palace for a then British record fee for a goalkeeper of £2.25million.
‘That team should have won something,’ he insists. ‘It’s a regret. We got to a UEFA Cup and Champions League semi-final, but we were just missing that extra bit you need to get over the line.’
Martyn remains in touch with many of that Champions League side via a WhatsApp group set up by Dominic Matteo, which includes the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith and Lucas Radebe. ‘The banter is like you’ve gone back the changing room in 2001,’ he says. ‘It’s the same people saying the same thing about the same people. It’s hilarious.’
He joined Everton in 2003 after he had been ousted as Leeds goalkeeper by Paul Robinson
Martyn remains in touch with many of Leeds side that made the Champions League last four
Leeds lost to Valencia in the semi-finals and Martyn regrets the side did not win something
Reclusive former England and Leeds team-mate David Batty is not in the WhatsApp group
One man who is not in the group is David Batty, the reclusive former England midfielder. ‘I roomed with Batts for a while,’ says Martyn. ‘He once said to me, “I’m your team-mate but I’ll never be one of your friends. Once I finish football, none of you will ever see me again”. And he’s been good to his word!
‘There have been some sightings of the lesser-spotted Batty out on the East Coast. But if I saw him in the street, I reckon all I’d get is a nod. I don’t think he’d come over and tell me what he’s been doing for the last 20 years!’
In contrast, Martyn made a public appearance in the hospitality suites at Elland Road for Leeds’ draw with Swansea last month and will be working the boxes again at Monday’s clash against Stoke. Daniel Farke’s side sit top of the Championship with three games to go after their 1-0 win over Oxford on Good Friday, five points clear of third-placed Sheffield United in the automatic promotion places.
‘I think they’ve proved they are the best team in the league,’ says Martyn, whose daughter Fay is also involved in top-level sport as a physio at Harlequins, while his son Thomas is an opera singer. ‘But it all comes down to these last games.’
Illan Meslier, left, was recently dropped as Leeds No1 with Karl Darlow, right, taking the gloves
Martyn believes Meslier needs to stand up when crowded at set pieces to remove the stigma
Leeds closed in on a return to the top flight with a 1-0 victory over Oxford on Good Friday
Leeds’ biggest headache this season has been in Martyn’s old role, with Farke recently dropping No1 Illan Meslier for Karl Darlow after a string of mistakes. ‘Oppositions were just getting the ball into the box on free-kicks and corners and putting players in and around him because he has struggled in those situations,’ says Martyn about the Frenchman.
‘To get rid of that stigma, he has to stand up in those moments, be physically strong and go and catch it. When confidence is high, you’ve got a good goalkeeper there. But when you make a mistake it hurts.’
Martyn, however, has his own form to worry about from next weekend.
‘At 58, I expect to be diving around out there again,’ he adds. ‘My wife said to me, “You’re 60 next year, how long are you going to do this for?”. But I enjoy it so much, I don’t ever want to stop.’
