Willie Watson, who died aged 84 of prostate cancer on 24th April 2004 at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa was a fine all round sportsman and one of an elite group that had represented England in international football and Test match cricket. Born in Bolton-on-Dearne in Bolton in 1920, he played football for Huddersfield, Sunderland and Halifax Town, winning four caps for his country and being part of the first England squad that took part in the World Cup, in Brazil in 1950, although he didn't actually play a match. He made his county cricket debut for Yorkshire in 1939 and in 1951 made his England Test debut, against South Africa at Trent Bridge, scoring 57 in his first match and 79 in his second. Watson was jostling for a position with the likes of Hutton, Compton, Edrich, May, Graveney and Cowdrey, in a golden era of English batting and found it difficult to nail down a regular place in the side. Even after that hundred on debut against Australia at Lord's in 1953, when his four-hour stand of 163 with Bailey saved the game, Watson wasn't secure: he was dropped before the end of the series, and missed the deciding final Test at The Oval, which England won to recapture the Ashes after 19 years. Watson, a graceful and correct left-hander, scored over 25,000 runs in a first-class career that spanned 25 years, but will probably be best remembered for a match-saving century in the 1953 Lord's Test against Australia, when his 109 – and his long partnership with Trevor Bailey – staved off what had seemed to be certain defeat. Football commitments at an end, Watson toured West Indies in 1953-54, and added a second Test century in Jamaica. He flitted in and out of the Test side until the end of the decade, playing his last Tests in Australasia in 1958-59, when one of his team-mates was another double cricket/football international, Arthur Milton. Watson finished with 879 runs from his 23 Tests, at an average of 25.85. By then Watson was playing his county cricket for Leicestershire, whom he'd joined as assistant secretary and captain in 1958. He played on to 1964, finishing with 25,670 runs in all (39.86), including 55 centuries. His highest score was 257, for MCC against British Guiana at Georgetown in 1953-54, when he shared a stand of 402 with Tom Graveney, who made 231. In England Watson's best was 217 not out, for Leicestershire against Somerset at Taunton in 1961, when he shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 316 with Alan Wharton, which remained a county record until 2003. And he carried his bat for his new county against his old one in 1959, scoring 79 not out in Leicestershire's total of 132 against Yorkshire at Grace Road. That season – which ironically followed what turned out to be his last Test appearance – turned out to be his most prolific one, as he passed 2000 runs for the first time and finished with 2212 at 55.30. Watson was a Test selector for three years from 1962, and emigrated to South Africa in 1968 to coach at the Wanderers club in Johannesburg.