Barrie Meyer, footballer & cricketer, died at 83

  Dead Famous

Barrie John Meyer, born August 21, 1932 and died on September 2015, he was an English footballer and cricketer, and later a cricket umpire.

Barrie played football for Bristol Rovers in 139 league matches, scoring 60 goals.

He also played for Plymouth Argyle, Newport County, Bristol City and Hereford United.

In the summer, Barrie worked as a member of the groundstaff at Gloucestershire CCC.

A good wicket-keeper, he played for Gloucestershire CCC in 406 first-class cricket matches from 1957 to 1971.

He took 707 catches and 119 stumpings, but was a relatively poor batsman – his career first-class batting average is only 14.19, with a highest score of 63.

Barrie was born in Bournemouth. When he retired, he became a cricket umpire.

He umpired 26 Tests in England from 1978 to 1993, including the 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley.

Barrie also umpired 23 One Day Internationals from 1977 to 1993, including the Cricket World Cup finals at Lord’s in 1979 and 1983.

Barrie holds the accolade of being the only footballer in history to score a goal against Manchester United in the FA Cup and go on to become a Test match umpire.

He scored in Bristol Rovers’ 4-0 win over Manchester United in the third round of the cup at Eastville on 7 January 1956, which was United’s 9th biggest defeat in FA Cup history.

In 2006 he published an autobiography, Getting It Right, co-authored with Andrew Hignell.

Barrie son Adrian was also a footballer, making 144 appearances for Scarborough, many in the Football League, before injury curtailed his career.

Barrie Meyer died at age 83 in 2015.