Graham Roope

DOB: 12th July 1946

Position: Goalkeeper

Season of first appearance: 1975/76

Season of last appearance: 1975/76

Full Appearances: 2

Substitute: 0

Goals: 0

Clean Sheets: 0

Also played for:

Corinthian Casuals, Ashford Town, Wimbledon, Hayes, Guildford City, Ramsgate Athletic, Kingstonian, Woking.

Player Profile:

Well-known cricketer, primarily a batsman, who was born in Fareham, Hampshire, and played 21 Test Matches for England. Graham also represented Berkshire, Surrey and Griqualand West (South Africa) at County level.

Graham also played football for a variety of clubs, starting his senior career with Corinthian Casuals before having a brief spell with Ashford in October 1966. He played one Southern League game for the Nuts & Bolts.

Later in the 1966/67 season, Graham had a stint with Wimbledon and made one appearance for the Dons' first-team, playing in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Walton & Hersham at Plough Lane on 14.2.67.

In November 1967, Graham joined Hayes and made 61 appearances for the club during the 1967/68 and 1968/69 seasons. He was sacked by the club in March 1969 after choosing to turn out for amateur side Old Bradfieldians, rather than play for Hayes.

Graham rejoined Wimbledon for the 1969/70 campaign and made 12 first-team appearances between October 1970 and April 1970.

Early in the 1970/71 season, Graham joined Guildford and, in December 1970, he signed for Ramsgate.

He made his debut for the Rams on 12.12.70 as they went down 4-1 at Bexley and the local paper reported that Graham had "a nightmare". He left Ramsgate in April 1971 due to his cricket commitments.

In October 1975, Graham returned to Thanet after playing amateur football for various London clubs and this time joined Margate. He was a personal friend of Margate manager Les Riggs and was signed as a stop-gap replacement for the injured Steve Bowtell. Graham made his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Gravesend & Northfleet on 25.10.75 and, although he made what the local press described as some "tremendous saves", he also dropped a cross that led to Gravesend's winning goal. He then played in the home game against Dunstable the following Saturday but, after Margate had lost 5-1, Graham left the club and gave up football altogether.

However, during the 1978/79 season Graham returned to the game and had a short spell with Kingstonian, making four appearances for them. He then played for Woking during the 1980/81 campaign, joining them in October 1980.

He was still playing cricket for Yorkshire side Farsley in the Bradford League during 2001 and turned out for Horsforth Hall Park and Ilkley in the Aire-Wharfe League in later years. Graham also played for the England over-50s team. During 2003, he was a regular member of the Lord's Taverners charity side.

Graham sadly died on 26.11.06 while on holiday in Grenada celebrating his 60th birthday. At the time he was working as a full-time cricket coach and groundsman at Woodhouse Grove, a private school in Yorkshire. He had joined the school's staff in 1996, taking over from famous cricketer Frank Tyson. Woodhouse Grove's headmaster David Humphreys paid tribute to Graham and said that he was "unfailingly good humoured, with a fount of stories and cricket knowledge, Graham committed many hours to the encouragement of our young cricketers".

Various obituaries in national newspapers highlighted Graham's slip fielding ability as a cricketer and his former Surrey colleague Geoff Arnold said: "I'd put him in the top half a dozen I've ever seen." He went on to say "he had great reflexes as a goalkeeper and this showed when he was at slip".

Graham went on two tours with England. In 1972-73 he visited India and Pakistan, where he made his Test debut, and in 1977-78 he was on the trip to Pakistan and New Zealand. He scored 860 runs in Tests at an average of 30.71 and held 35 catches. Graham made seven fifties, but never reached three figures. His best Test score was 77 against Australia at The Oval in 1975. England only lost two Tests that Graham played in and he was also the man at the other end when Geoff Boycott famously completed his 100th first-class hundred at Headingley in 1977.

At the time of his death, Graham was one of only two people to have played football for Margate and cricket for England, Alan Brown being the other.