Aged twenty-five (two years older than reported at the time), and normally a right-back, he joined Exeter City from Rossendale United in May 1914. Another of manager Arthur Chadwick's Lancastrian signings, the Accrington-born defender was also a professional cricketer with Rochdale in the Central Lancashire League. 

Only featuring in 1914/15 after the end of the cricket season, the one-time Great Harwood footballer failed to make a Southern League appearance during his time at St James' Park and resumed his cricketing career with Rochdale in 1915 before play was suspended for the duration of hostilities.

Returning to the summer sport after the war, he made his first-class debut for Lancashire in 1919 at the age of thirty.