 Balmer, who was intelligent and very skillful, was given the captaincy in the 1947/48 season and continued to score for fun along with Stubbins.He played 313 games, scoring 111 goals between 1935 and 1952 which would have been a lot more if it hadn't been for the Second World War.It was during the 1939–45 war that he gained his only international recognition playing for England in an wartime match verses Wales at the Recreation Ground in front of a crowd of 17,000 on 18 November 1939, England won 3–2 with John Balmer scoring one of England's goals.