Born in
St. George's, Grenada, Batson moved with his family to
Trinidad at the age of 6 and then migrated from the
West Indies to England when he was nine years old in 1962. Until then he had never even seen a game of football and a teacher at his school, on watching his early efforts and reflecting on his birthplace opined, "Well, perhaps
cricket is your game." However, he was signed as a schoolboy by
Arsenal, and whilst at the club's academy won the
FA Youth Cup of
1971. In all, he made 10 appearances for Arsenal, before moving to
Cambridge United in 1974. He spent four years at Cambridge, captaining the side to the
Fourth Division Championship under manager
Ron Atkinson in the
1976–77 season. At Cambridge, Batson made a total of 163 appearances and scored six goals altogether. When Atkinson moved to
West Bromwich Albion in 1978, he successfully encouraged Batson to follow him and team up with fellow black players
Cyrille Regis and
Laurie Cunningham, leaving in a deal worth £28,000. Although not by any means the first black footballers to play professionally in England, the players nicknamed
Three Degrees by Atkinson, a reference to
contemporary vocal trio of the same name, were pioneering, iconic and extremely popular with West Brom's fans. This trio's fame is to such an extent that in 2012 plans were put forward for a statue of which would honor the footballing trio being purposely displayed in October 2014 at
The Hawthorns. The completed statue was publicly unveiled in New Square in the town on 21 May 2019. Whilst a West Bromwich Albion player, he featured in a
benefit match for
Len Cantello, that saw a team of white players play against a team of black players. He played 160 games for the Baggies before his career was cut short in 1982 by a serious knee injury. ==International career==