Cotton; Cricket and Football

Cotton, Cricket and Football is the story of Billy Cook, one of Lancashire’s most colourful sportsmen of the pre-war era. Billy played to win but most of all he played for money, when everyone earned it the hard way. A hard-tackling full-back, he made a bigger impact on the world-famous Lancashire League than any other player.

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Cotton, Cricket and Football: Billy Cook, the Life of a Lancashire League Legend is the colourful story of one of Lancashire’s greatest sportsmen of the pre-war era, told from the perspective of his daughter, a mill-worker in Burnley.


Billy Cook played cricket in the golden era of ‘Gentlemen and Players’ but he was no gentleman. He played to win and he played for money – the money generated by the cotton mills of Lancashire.


Billy played with and against some of the legends of the time, including Syd Barnes, Archie MacLaren and Learie Constantine. In the winter he was a hard-tackling full-back for Oldham Athletic, who achieved national notoriety for his win-at-all-costs approach to the game.


Billy’s sporting career was interrupted by his service on the Western Front, where he narrowly avoided death. He returned to the Lancashire League to set records that still stand today. Cook was the archetypal hard-nosed professional, who entertained the working men of Lancashire for more than 30 years.