Of bats, hats, balls and books

This summer, all eyes have been on Shane Warne, Freddie Flintoff and everyone else engaged in the England vs Australia Ashes battle. But whatever the outcome, some cricket lovers will be happier to look back at the game's glorious, sepia-tinted past.

The first ever Wisden, Bradman's "baggy green" cap, Botham's Duncan Fearnley cricket bat, even the Ashes themselves will rank top of most people's memorabilia wish list. Because of their rarity, however, even the keenest buyer would be lucky to bag such treasures for their collection.

Fortunately, there are thousands of other items of cricket memorabilia, or "cricketana" as it is known. From its origins as a simple rural pastime, cricket has been a recognised sport since the 18th century, and over the years its collectable by-products have included books, artworks, photography, ceramics, score cards, cigarette cards and players' personal effects.

First published in 1864, the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has long been a top collectable, and a reliable investment, too. Copies swap hands for as much as £5,000.

One of the rarest is 1916 - because of the first world war, it had a limited print run. It also featured the great W G Grace's obituary. Serious collectors aim for the complete set at around £40,000.

"You can find them in boot sales as well as Sotheby's, and if you're collecting the set, it's worth buying a cheap tatty edition until a better one turns up," advises vintage book dealer Michael Berry, who recently sold Grace's own signed Wisdens, discovered in a trunk in Canada, for a staggering £150,000.

W G Grace enjoyed huge sporting success in the late Victorian era. His bearded face endorsed mugs, jugs, doorstops, bar tables and even a pub game.

As a rule, cricket books from the Victorian and Edwardian eras command higher prices than those published after 1920. The record price for a single publication is £98,000 for Samuel Britcher's Complete List of All the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the Years 1804 & 1805. At the more affordable end, there are printed scorecards such as the Gloucestershire vs the Australians in 1878, sold at Christie's for £420.

Paintings, photographs and engravings from the "golden age" (1890s-1914) are also highly sought after. Vanity Fair's caricatures by Leslie Ward, aka Spy, remain popular, and a Grace or Ranjitsinhji colour lithograph fetches roughly £150.

The fact that professional cricketers require mountains of kit means there's a market for bats, balls, gloves, pads, caps and even a stump or two. The bat used by West Indian legend Sir Garfield Sobers to hit six sixes in an over against Glamorgan in 1968 sold at auction in 2000 for £54,257, whilst the ball which England's Fred Trueman bowled to claim his 300th Test wicket fetched nearly £10,000 in 1964.

The prize for the most valued piece of Australian equipment goes to Don Bradman's 1930 Test cap which was sold to a private collector for £35,850 - a world record for a cricket cap.

Not all valuable collectables are attached to the big names. Keith Hayhurst of the Cricket Memorabilia Society is the proud owner of a cap belonging to a Richard Barlow of Lancashire. When an Australian captain was impressed by Barlow's batting in the 1880s, he announced: "I take my cap off to you". The expression that later came into popular usage. Mr Hayhurst also has a note from once-capped West Indies batsman Andy Ganteaume. His captain sent out this hastily scribbled message whilst he compiled a diligent century against England in 1948. It reads simply: "Get a move on!" He did, and was soon back in the pavilion.

Don't be fooled by anyone offering you the original Ashes urn, a 10cm-high terracotta cup containing burnt bails that once symbolised the death of English cricket.

Whilst there are hundreds of Ashes replicas, including the one presented to the winning team at the end of series, the real trophy - a small relic dating back to 1883 - is kept at the MCC museum in London's St John's Wood.

If Australia win for the ninth consecutive time (England hasn't held the Ashes since 1986), the urn will be off Down Under for the first time in 2006. Experts have previously said it's far too fragile to travel.

Financial Times Article

Cricket memorabilia

By Natalie Graham

Published: June 2 2006 17:30 | Last updated: June 2 2006 17:30

Retired headmaster and schools inspector Keith Hayhurst spotted the investment potential for cricket memorabilia decades ago.

As a schoolboy, Hayhurst, who lives in Cheshire, was keen to collect signatures of great cricketers and was intrigued by the history of the sport. Now in his late 60s, Hayhurst, who is vice-chairman of Lancashire County Cricket Club, has a collection of memorabilia worth many thousands of pounds. He does not intend to sell it, but could do if he needed to raise capital.

Hayhurst believes that rare items of memorabilia have outstripped many other investments. “There is a great deal of money in cricket memorabilia collecting because of rare material, and the game has a greater history than most other sports.

“A friend of mine who collected rare cricket books and pamphlets sold them for £550,000 several weeks ago. He paid a fraction of that sum for the items.”

Such high prices are not uncommon. Last year Christie’s sold four cricket scorebooks of Samuel Britcher, the first scorer at Lord’s, dated 1795-1806 for a total of £324,000.

Hayhurst founded the Lancashire County Cricket Club Museum, now one of the largest collections outside of Lord’s. In 1987 he helped to launch the Cricket Memorabilia Society, of which he is chairman.

“When I was 11, in 1948, I asked my father to take me to Old Trafford to see Sir Donald Bradman, who was captain of Australia and the most famous batsman at the time. I not only got his autograph but in years to come I got to know him very well.

“At the age of 16 I went to see a game in Staffordshire which included my heroes Denis Compton, Bill Edrich and Cyril Washbrook. I wanted to know the name of the old man who was bowling. It was a very illustrious cricketer, SF Barnes. He was probably the greatest bowler ever, and he was 80. I got his autograph and those of the rest of the team. In a smaller ground like Staffordshire you can integrate with the players much more easily than at Test Match grounds.”

Hayhurst has amassed thousands of items, including 2,000 books of autobiographies and cricket history. “As my children are not interested in cricket, in years to come I might consider selling some of the rarer items, but I will pass on many treasures to the Old Trafford museum.

“I started off with cigarette card collecting at school, then progressed to Wisden’s Almanac, which is a record of all first-class matches played each year. These started in 1864 and I have every one of them.

“A full set would be worth about £60,000 but it was not worth that when I started collecting. You could pick up a run of early Wisden’s at a very reasonable price in the 1950s. For 10 copies I paid £5 each, which was quite a lot of money for me then. The very first hardback version of Wisden, published in 1896, sold at auction for nearly £10,000 a few months ago.”

Hayhurst has acquired his memorabilia from friends, personal gifts, auctions, antique shops, former cricketers and a vast amount of legwork tracking down relatives of deceased cricketers.

He is the proud owner of a priceless cricket cap with extraordinary provenance. It belonged to William Murdoch, the Australian captain in 1884 who more than met his match against Richard Barlow, who played in the North of England side against the touring Australian team in 1884 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Barlow scored a century and took 10 wickets in the match, a phenomenal performance. Murdoch ran to him at the end of the game, took off his cap and handed it to Barlow saying: “I take my cap off to you.”

Hayhurst says: “Those words hit the headlines everywhere and became ‘I take my hat off to you’.” Barlow’s illegitimate son gave this cap to Hayhurst in the late 1970s after Hayhurst had spent seven years knocking on doors in Blackpool and Southport to track him down. Hayhurst says: “He was happy for me to have the cap because he knew I was so enthusiastic about protecting the life of his father.

“One of Bradman’s caps went for more than £150,000 a year ago, and is also a unique item. It is impossible to guess what Murdoch’s cap is worth.”

items relating to the controversial Bodyline Series of 1932/33 are highly collectable, because the series provoked a major row between the UK and Australia.

Anything that belonged to W.G. Grace, who played cricket from 1860 to the 1890s, is of great value because he started the modern ethos of cricket and developed it into the game it is today. “In his time he was as famous as royalty,” says Hayhurst.

The Financial Times Limited 2008

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