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Cricketana in 2006
By Will last year, mid-April, Comments
Nice piece in today’s Wisden Almanack special on cricketana last year.
But auctions and controversy do seem to go together. In November, Christie’s auctioned what was definitely a cricket ball. It was said to be the one that Garry Sobers clobbered for the last of his six sixes in an over at Swansea in 1968. But how do we know it was that ball?
Christie’s had done a great deal of research. A 17-year-old spectator, Richard Lewis, searched for the ball as he was leaving the ground and found it in the gutter. The ball was handed back to Sobers and was believed to have been destined for the Trent Bridge Museum. But it never got there. For a time it was on display in one of the bars there, then supporters’ club secretary Josie Miller popped it in her make-up drawer for safe keeping. The ball arrived at Christie’s with a certificate of provenance signed by Sobers. But some players from the match say Stuart Surridge balls were in use. This was a Dukes. On the other hand, at least two balls were used in that over, so the replacement could have been a different make. Whatever, it made £22,000.
With relief, one can report there were no arguments at all about the burr walnut Victorian kidney-shaped pedestal desk sold by Bonham’s in March for £54,000 to an anonymous bidder. Barry Johnston, son of Brian, has fond memories of his father sitting at the desk in his study.
“Every morning, he would religiously sit at this desk and sort through his post,” he recalled. “He would receive countless letters from cricket fans and people asking him to open fêtes and so on, and he would scribble replies on the back of Donald McGill’s saucy seaside postcards - whether it was to a cricket fan or a bishop.”
There are always a host of really interesting, different, offbeat articles in the Almanack and we’ll be putting one up each week in its usual Sunday slot. Of course, you really ought to just go and buy it as well.
CommentsBooks, annuals, programmes for sale
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of April, Comments
Alastair McLellen, who graciously mentioned the CoU in this year’s 2006 Almanack, has a veritable feast of cricket books, souvenirs, photos and all sorts for sale. There’s masses to be seen…so click here to get the full list, and click here to email him and make an offer on any of them.
Signed books
My Autobiography – Allan Lamb, Colins Willow, 1996 – Signed by Allan Lamb
Herbert Sutcliffe – Alan Hill, Simon & Schuster, 1991 (Hdbk) – Signed by the author
Summer of Swing – Khadim Hussain Baloch (Pbk) – Signed by Salim Malik
Continued below…
CommentsSteve Waugh’s baggy cap
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, Comments
This looks like old news, but neither I - nor Yahoo News - picked up on it. A cricket collector by the name of Keith Attree was given one of Steve Waugh’s baggy green’s, and it’s now going up for auction. Although according to the auctioneer’s, Charles Leski, it appears this was back on March 23. Maybe it’s taken this long to get it cleaned!
Anyhow, Steve aint happy according to AFP:
CommentsWaugh’s management told Charles Leski Auctions in a statement Friday: “Steve Waugh has never given away one of his Test baggy green caps. To auction this item is a misrepresentation of the truth.”
Vast personal Cricket memorabilia auction
By Will 3 years ago, mid-April, Comments
On the train yesterday, I happened to read a peice by a Sotherby’s expert on some cricket memorabilia coming up for auction on Thursday at Christie’s. It’s part, or all, of the collection of the late Desmond Eager - once captain of Hampshire. The only details I can find of Eager are in a December 2000 edition of The Hampshire Cricket Society newsletter, and his name is only mentioned in passing.
By all accounts, he was a cricket-nut and is therefore welcomed warmly into cricket blogging circles, even though he’s now no longer with us. I’ve found the listings of all the sales at Christies which can be found here. There are some gems:
A Complete List of All the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the Years 1804 & 1805 … by Stanhope and Graham - estimate £17,000-22,0000. The only recorded copy in existence-
WILLIAM EPPS
Cricket. A Collection of All the Grand Matches of Cricket played in England within Twenty Years, viz. from 1771 to 1791, never before published - This is absolutely fascinating - published way back in 1799, this scorecard (shown below) even uses Old English (replacing certain instances of the letter S with F, hence Hampfhire)
There are over 200 items being sold, and not just in “fantasy money” price ranges, so if you can spare time on Thursday and are in London, why not pop along? Never been to an auction myself, so I don’t know if you can just turn up, but I don’t see why not.
The article mentions one of the books, Le Cricket pour les Sportsmen Français which “represents a valiant but ultimately doomed attempt to translate the laws of the game into French.” Examples:
Duck = Oeuf de canard (duck’s egg)
Googlie = Bowling haut et lent (bowling high and slow)
LBW = Jambe-devant-guichet (leg in front of ticket office)
Another book makes mention of the oddities of cricket, and the teams to have played it:
Handsome v Uglies
Women with bats v Men with Broomsticks playing left hand
Heavy with Sin v Light with Honesty
What a collection, and thank God I’ve found it. This is as close as I, or even most people reading this, will come to looking at the documents and books unless people like the MCC or museums are willing to cough up for them. I really hope so.
Comments