John Christopher Balderstone (16 November 1940 – 6 March 2000) was an English professional in cricket and football, and one of the last sportsmen to combine both sports over a prolonged period.
[2] He played football as a midfielder for Huddersfield Town, Carlisle United, Doncaster Rovers and Queen of the South.
[4] He made 117 Football League appearances for Huddersfield,[5] and played a total of 131 senior games for them (scoring 25 goals).
[2] It was Balderstone's penalty against Pat Jennings and Tottenham Hotspur that had Carlisle briefly topping England's Football League after the first 3 games of the 1974–75 season.
When George Cloy and Crawford Boyd were each later interviewed for the Queen of the South website, each commented on Balderstone's ability with the ball.
"[4] Leicestershire won their first-ever trophy in 1972, the inaugural Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord's, and Balderstone took the man of the match Gold Award.
[4] In 1973 Balderstone played his first full season of cricket and jumped right to the front-rank of English batsmen, making 1,222 runs at an average of 42.
[4] Balderstone made history on 15 September 1975 by taking part in a County Championship match and a Football League game on the same day.
He then returned to Chesterfield the following morning to complete a century and take three wickets to help wrap up Leicestershire's first ever County Championship title.
Five years later, against Essex at Grace Road, Leicestershire's home ground, he shared an unbroken county record second wicket stand of 289 with David Gower.
[4] Having had a delayed cricket career, Balderstone played on for Leicestershire into his mid-40s without noticeably losing batting form or his fielding athleticism.
[4] Balderstone was one of ten members of Leicestershire's first County Championship winning team in 1975 to have a road in Leicester named after him by the city council.
Peter Booth, Brian Davison, Barry Dudleston, Ken Higgs, David Humphries, Ray Illingworth Norman McVicker, John Steele and Roger Tolchard were the others.
In 1976, Balderstone was called into the England Test team to make his international debut aged 35 having focused in his younger days on football.
Against the fearsome pace of Andy Roberts and Michael Holding he struggled, like so many other English batsmen: his four innings produced only 39 runs.