 He played for the cricket club associated with Holy Trinity Church, in Bordesley, Birmingham, and together with his fellow members decided to form a football club for exercise and society in the winter months.The club, which they called Small Heath Alliance, played its first match in November 1875 on some waste ground in Arthur Street, Bordesley.James's brothers Tommy and Fred played in that first fixture, a 1–1 draw with Holte Wanderers of Aston, though he himself did not.