An Aspiblog All Time XI

A bit of fun on the all time XI theme, a look back at a James and Sons auction, and a photo gallery.

The first test match of a five match series between India and England is two days old as I type this post, but I am holding fire on that for the moment. This all time XI is picked with a view to being an entertaining watch. I have restricted it to players who played before I started following cricket, and save for allowing myself one overseas player I have concentrated on English cricketers. After I have paraded the XI there will be a section about some of the players who missed out, though I will limit myself, otherwise that section could be very long indeed.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Frank Woolley (left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). An attacking batter, an excellent spinner and the only non-wicket keeper ever to take 1,000 first class catches.
*WG Grace (right handed batter, right arm bowler of various types through his career, captain). Cricket’s first superstar.
Wally Hammond (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). Over 50,000 first class runs, including 167 centuries, in spite of missing eight complete seasons in the course of his career – one to bureaucratic malice on the part of Lord Harris, one to illness and six to WWII. Considered by Bradman to possess the best of all cover drives.
Denis Compton (right handed batter, occasional left arm wrist spin bowler). A great cricketer and an even greater entertainer.
Garry Sobers (left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket). No cricketer before or since has mastered so great a range of skills as my chosen overseas player.
+Les Ames (wicket keeper, right handed batter). Twice winner of the Lawrence trophy for the fastest first class hundred of the season, scorer of over 100 FC hundreds, maker of a record 418 first class stumpings in his career. The “wicket keeper’s double” of 1,000 runs and 100 dismissals in first class matches in an English season was only achieved four times before the reduction of first class fixtures in 1969 made it impossible, and three of those were by Ames (John Murray of Middlesex was the other to do it).
Percy Fender (right handed batter, leg spinner, vice-captain). I have remarked before on his suitability for batting at seven in a strong line up and his tactical acumen.
Jim Laker (off spinner, right handed batter). In 1956 he absolutely destroyed the visiting Australians, and it wasn’t all about the pitches helping him – when Australia played Surrey before the test series had started they batted first, and Laker, on a good pitch and having not slept the previous night due to his children being sick had figures of 46-18-88-10 in the first innings.
George Simpson-Hayward (under-arm off spinner, right handed batter). The last specialist under arm bowler to play at the highest level, and his five test matches yielded him 23 wickets. Someone prepared to buck the trends as spectacularly as he did must have been worth watching,
Syd Barnes (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). My pick for the greatest bowler of them all – 189 wickets in just 27 test matches, at 16.43 a piece.
Tom Richardson (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). Only 14 test matches, which yielded him 88 wickets. His first class record was outstanding – he took his 1,000th first class wicket in his 134th first class match, and his 2,000th in his 327th match, both these figures being records.

This side has a powerful batting line up, and a spectacular bowling line up, with massive variety on show – Barnes, Richardson, Sobers in his quicker guises and Hammond to bowl pace/ seam, and Laker, Simpson-Hayward, Fender, Woolley, Sobers in his slower guises, and Compton to bowl spin plus of course the wild card of WG Grace.

MISSING OUT

The number seven slot was a two-way choice, and I opted for Fender who bowled spin over Jessop who bowled pace. I considered the presence of Woolley and Sobers to obviate the need for a specialist left arm spinner. There would have been a number of possibilities, Rhodes, Blythe, Verity and Wardle being just four of those I might have chosen. Digby Jephson who bowled fast underarm just a few years before Simpson-Hayward’s prime and was enough of a bat to be considered an all rounder was a possibility there, but Simpson-Hayward got the nod for two reasons: he played test cricket and Jephson did not, and also in view of the current state of England’s spin bowling, and some of the comments flying around that imply that England have never had great spinners I wanted to place extra emphasis on spin. I regretted not being able to accommodate either Harold Larwood or Frank Tyson, but I had only 11 spaces to fill. I also didn’t include a specialist left arm quick bowler, relying on Sobers for that. Had I done so William Mycroft would have got the nod.

AN AUCTION

James and Sons had an auction earlier this week, which did reasonably well, especially given that it was basically an appetizer for next week’s auction of sporting memorabilia. There were a few items of interest to me. Lot 68 was a pair of bookmarks, which went my way cheaply.

No prizes for guessing which bookmark I actually wanted!

Lots 141 and 142 would have been of interest to me but were beyond my purchasing power.

I did get lot 269.

The Metropolitan Railway was the original Underground railway from which London Underground developed.

Lot 329 also went to me…

I ignored lot 399…

I had produced a very extensive image gallery for lot 400, made more so by fielding a query on that lot. However, in the end my opportunistic bid was the only one on the lot.

Lots 402 was also railway related but discipline had to prevail.

Lot 602, a model of a locomotive sculpted from coal proved, as I expected to be the case, to be beyond my price range.

I end this section with a lot that attracted a fierce bidding war (in which I had no part, other than creating the images that generated it), and ended up fetching £150, having been expected to do no more than 20-30, number 197.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Harbingers of spring, and it is only late Janaury.

Pakistan v South Africa

A look at developments in today’s world cup match between Pakistan and South Africa, a brief mention of this week’s auctions, and a photo gallery.

This post looks at developments in today’s match at the ODI cricket world, between Pakistan and South Africa. I was at work yesterday, which gives me the perfect excuse to draw a veil over England’s “effort” against Sri Lanka – all my knowledge of what happened in that match is second hand.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Pakistan were coming off a defeat at the hands of Afghanistan, while South Africa have been hugely impressive so far. Both sides made changes to the line up. Pakistan won the toss, and managed to get the next part right – they decided to bat first.

THE PAKISTAN INNINGS

Pakistan did not fare well at first, and when Babar Azam was out for 50 (65), his third such innings of the tournament, they were 141-5. However a good partnership between Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan helped them to reach a final total of 270. Tabraiz Shamsi claimed four wickets with his left arm wrist spin and Marco Jansen three with his left arm pace. Pakistan’s total, while not great by modern ODI standards, looked enough to be defensible if they bowled well.

SOUTH AFRICA’S RESPONSE

South Africa have made a rapid start to their reply, but have also lost two wickets. The score at the moment is 110-2 after 16 overs, a position from which South Africa should prevail easily enough. However, Pakistan are notoriously unpredictable – it would be very like them to suddenly find form from nowhere and win this one.

AUCTION NEWS

This week has been auction week for James and Sons. It has been a little bit chequered – the Militaria auction which should have been on Tuesday had to be postponed until today due to internet problems, while the Railwayana auction on Wednesday was very successful, though it did take a long time to get through. I managed to discipline myself to placing advance bids on two lots and opportunistically snapping up a third when it would have gone very cheap indeed otherwise. Here are the pictures I have taken of them since getting them home, save for one composite pic which serves as the feature image of this post.

The appositeness of this picture become apparent when you see…

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pakistan and Australia Locked in Battle

A look at developments in today’s cricket world cup match between Australia and Pakistan, a heads up about auctions taking place next week and a photo gallery.

Today’s world cup match features Australia and Pakistan and is taking place in Bengaluru. The first part of this post looks at developments in this match.

THE AUSTRALIA INNINGS

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Australia got away to a flying start, helped by Usama Mir dropping an easy chance to be rid of Warner early on. The opening stand yielded 259, and they came quickly, with a total of 400+ looking more likely than not at that stage. However, as wickets began to tumble the scoring rate declined, and in the end Australia had recorded 367-9 from their 50 overs. Warner had scored 163 and his opening partner Mitchell Marsh 121, while the standout bowler was Shaheen Shah Afridi with 5-51 from his 10 overs. Haris Rauf took three wickets, but that was only after taking a blasting early on – his first five overs went for 70.

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

Pakistan needed a fast start with the bat to stay in the hunt and they got one. Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq each topped 50 but got out before going really big. This was the first occasion in world cup history that all four opening batters had scored 50+. Babar Azam fell to an excellent catch by Pat Cummins for 18, but Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel are going well and have got Pakistan to 203-3 in the 31st over, keeping them in the contest. Scoring has been brisk because the pitch is very flat, the outfield is lightning fast and the ground is significantly above sea level.

TWO-DAY AUCTION

Next week James and Sons have a two-day auction. Day 1 (Tuesday) features mainly militaria, while day two features over 600 collectable railway models. The full catalogue can be viewed here or here. The models start with lot 501, which is on page six of the-saleroom’s listing (first link) and page nine of easyliveauction’s listing. Here are a few sample images:

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

three goldfinches perching on an aerial.

While I have been preparing this for publication Pakistan have lost one wicket but have also moved on to 263 in the 38th over. 105 off 12.3 overs is not particularly daunting by modern standards.

Australia Prewar XI

A look at Australia’s best test cricketers of 1877-1914 and a large photo gallery.

Having just finished a brief look at England men’s test cricket through the ages I now turn England’s oldest adversaries in international cricket, Australia. I start with the best players of 1877-1914 inclusive.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Warren Bardsley (left handed opening batter). Until Don Bradman came along and blew all such records out of the water he had scored more FC centuries than any other Australian batter and more than half of those centuries were scored on tours of England (compare and contrast a left hander of much more recent vintage in David Warner). At the Oval in 1909 he became the first ever to score a century in each innings of a test match.
Victor Trumper (right handed opening batter). One of cricket’s immortals. In the wet summer of 1902 he scored 2,570 FC runs for the tour including 11 centuries. In the Old Trafford test of that series, where an Australian win by three runs ensured that they kept the Ashes he reached a century before lunch on day one.
*Billy Murdoch (right handed batter, captain). In 1880 at The Oval he won a sovereign from WG Grace by scoring 153* in Australia’s second innings to top the bearded Doctor’s 152 on the opening day of the match. Four years later at the same ground he scored test cricket’s first ever double century, 211.
Clem Hill (left handed batter). Until Hobbs overhauled his tally he held the record for test career runs. He amassed eight test tons in total, including the only century of the only test ever played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in 1902. He also had a unique sequence of near misses in the 1901-2 series, making 99, 98 and 97 in successive knocks.
Charlie Macartney (right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). He had only just begun his rise to the top before WWI, but did enough, including taking his one and only match haul of ten wickets, to claim his spot in the XI.
George Giffen (right handed batter, off spinner). Australia’s first great all rounder. In the 1894-5 Ashes he scored 475 runs and claimed 34 wickets.
+Jack Blackham (wicket keeper, right handed batter). The ‘Prince of Wicket Keepers’, and enough of a batter to have been the first keeper to score two fifties in the same test match. He played in each of the first 17 test matches ever contested, before missing one due a dispute over pay, and then returning and playing on until the 1894-5 Ashes.
Hugh Trumble (off spinner, right handed batter). Good enough in his secondary department to have done the season’s double on the 1899 tour of England and to have been Australia’s highest individual scorer at The Oval in 1902. He took 141 test wickets all against England, including doing the hat trick twice in his career. His 141 wickets against England remained a record for almost eight decades after his retirement, until Dennis Lillee overtook him at Headingley in 1981.
Fred ‘Demon’ Spofforth (right arm medium-fast). A master of changes of pace, he took the first ever test hat trick, and it was his bowling that won the 1882 match at The Oval that led to the creation of the Ashes.
Charlie ‘Terror’ Turner (right arm medium fast). He succeeded Spofforth as leader of Australia’s attack, and reached the milestone of 100 test wickets in just 17 matches.
Ernest Jones (right arm fast). Australia’s first authentic test match quick bowler. He once sent a ball through WG Grace’s beard. Like the later Harold Larwood of England he was a miner before establishing himself as a cricketer.

This side has a powerful top five, an all rounder at six, a keeper who could bat and four formidable front bowlers. The bowling is also very powerful, though it lacks either a left arm seam option or a leg spin option.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Charles Bannerman missed out on an opening slot partly because of being right handed – Trumper had to be picked and I felt that left handed Warren Bardsley was a better foil for him than Bannerman. Two other specialist batters who could not be accommodated were Joe Darling and Syd Gregory, the latter playing more test matches than anyone else whose entire career happened before WWI.

I could have got around the leg spin problem by naming Warwick Armstrong as the all rounder, but I felt that Giffen’s case was unanswerable. Monty Noble was the other candidate for the all rounder’s role and would have been a natural for the captaincy had I gone for him. Frank Tarrant never played test cricket, otherwise he would have been a shoo-in (England toyed with the idea of picking him based on his years at Middlesex but felt that such a move would cause problems with the Aussies, who don’t appear to have ever considered picking him).

There were two other keepers of the era of something approaching comparable stature to Blackham, Jim Kelly and Hanson Carter.

The nearest any left arm bowler who actually played for Australia came to claiming a place were Jack Ferris, Turner’s regular new ball partner, and Jack Saunders, but neither quite did enough.

Frank Laver and Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter were right arm seam/ pace bowlers who came close.

Australia only had one specialist leg spinner of note before WWI, Herbert Hordern, and his career was brief.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The five images, starting with this one are of a present from my parents who have recently been in Florida. It hangs just inside my front door, on the left side.

England Interwar Years XI

A look at England’s best cricketers of the interwar years, a piece of railwayana and a large photo gallery.

Last time out I created an XI of England cricketers from before WWI. Now I look at the next period – the interwar years, well covered by Gerald Howat in “Cricket’s Second Golden Age”. In this period England had immense batting strength with the result that some huge names miss out. The bowling was by no means weak either.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Jack Hobbs (right handed opening batter). The Master. At Melbourne in 1929 he became the oldest ever test centurion at the age of 46 – the last his 12 Ashes centuries.
Herbert Sutcliffe (right handed opening batter). His entry into first class cricket was delayed by WWI (he was already 24 when that conflict ended in November 1918) while the outbreak of WWII in 1939 marked the end of his FC career (his test career had ended in 1935, but his performance in FC cricket in 1939 was excellent even at the age of 44). He was the ultimate big occasion player as shown by the progression of his averages: 52.02 in all FC cricket, 60.73 in all test cricket and 66.85 in the cauldron of The Ashes. He and Jack Hobbs were the greatest of all test match opening combinations, averaging 87.81 per partnership.
Walter Hammond (right handed batter, ace slip fielder, useful right arm medium fast bowler). Had Hammond like the older Sutcliffe allowed WWII to end his career he would have bowed out with a test batting average of 61.75 (6,883 runs), but he attempted a comeback post war, which dragged his average below 60.
Eddie Paynter (left handed batter). Going by career batting averages England’s most successful ever left hander, averaging 59.23 at test level, including double centuries against Australia and South Africa. His career was truncated at both ends, by the immense strength of Lancashire’s batting when he first started to come through and by the outbreak of WWII.
Patsy Hendren (right handed batter). Only Hobbs scored more FC centuries than Hendren’s 170, and his test record was also impressive.
*Frank Woolley (left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner, excellent fielder and my chosen skipper). At Lord’s in 1921 when everyone else was helpless in the face of Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald he scored 95 and 93. I have named him as skipper even though as a professional of that era he never actually had the job because I believe his tactical nous, illustrated in his book “King of Games”, would have served him well in the role, and Hammond, the conventional choice of captain for this XI, appears to have not actually been even a good skipper.
+Les Ames (right handed batter, wicket keeper). The first wicket keeper to average over 40 with the bat at test level and a destructive stroke maker, he is the ideal number seven for a side like this.
Maurice Tate (right arm fast medium bowler, useful lower order batter). In the ill-fated 1924-5 Ashes series he claimed 38 wickets for a well beaten side. In 1926 he was one of the stars of a successful Ashes campaign, and he was involved in both the 1928-9 and 1932-3 tours when England won 4-1 each time.
Harold Larwood (right arm fast bowler, useful lower order batter). In the 1932-3 Ashes he was unplayable, claiming 33 wickets before hobbling off injured in the final match (made to wait until Bradman was out by skipper Jardine).
Hedley Verity (left arm orthodox spinner, useful lower order batter). In a career that lasted less than a decade he took 1,956 wickets at 14.90 a piece. At test level, where he encountered Bradman, he was less devastating, but 144 wickets at 24 is still a fine record, and I defer to the judgement of the Don himself who only acknowledged facing one bowler as an equal: Hedley Verity.
Bill Voce (left arm fast medium bowler, lower order batter). This slot was the toughest to fill, but I opted to give Larwood his most regular bowling partner and rely on two other left armers, Verity and Woolley for the spin.

This side has a formidably deep batting line up, and Larwood, Voce, Tate, Verity, Woolley and Hammond can hardly be considered a weak bowling combination.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Although Denis Compton and Bill Edrich had both played for England by the time WWII broke out both played their best cricket after the war, so I held them back for then. Leonard Hutton scored his England record 364 in 1938, but that Oval pitch was a featherbed, Australia were short of bowling, and I felt that the proven Hobbs/ Sutcliffe combination at the top was a better bet in any case. Hutton, like the Middlesex “twins” will feature in the post-war version of this post. Phil Mead missed out – one of he or Paynter had to be unlucky and I preferred the Lancastrian. Ernest Tyldesley was another casualty of England’s immense batting strength in this period. Maurice Leyland of Yorkshire was another unlucky one in this regard. Several fine wicket keepers missed out – Herbert Strudwick, EJ “Tiger” Smith and George Duckworth being the most notable, while advocates of batter-keepers might have considered Paul Gibb. Vallance Jupp did the double eight times in successive seasons in the 1920s, but his England appearances were sporadic, so the off spinning all rounder missed out. Ted ‘Nobby’ Clark, a left arm fast bowler, was a candidate for the slot I gave to Voce. Three leg spinners, ‘Tich’ Freeman, Ian Peebles and Tommy Mitchell all had moments at the highest level but not substantial enough records at that level to claim a place. Two right arm medium-fast bowlers who were unlucky to be squeezed out were George Geary and Alec Kennedy, both outstanding at FC level and in Geary’s case also proven in test cricket. Tom Goddard, the best off spinner of the interwar years, was as he often was in real life, unlucky – the only way to include him would have been in place of Tate, relying on Hammond as third seamer. Finally, although Verity’s selection is incontrovertible several notable left arm tweakers missed out in consequence: Charlie Parker (treated scurvily by the selectors of his era, to end up as a one-cap wonder at test level while taking over 3,000 FC wickets), JC ‘Farmer’ White and Roy Kilner.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before moving on to the main photo gallery, James and Sons’ March auction took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and was a considerable success. In amongst the stuff going for big money I secured an interesting little piece of South African railwayana for a modest £12 – it was featured on the back cover of the printed catalogue, and online bidders saw these two images:

and…

Here are some images of the item taken since I took possession of it…

I also took a high resolution scan of the item itself…

The scan after cropping and editing.

Now for my regular photo gallery…

Appropriately enough given the nickname of King’s Lynn Town FC and the fact that this was taken in King’s Lynn I think this is a linnet.

James and Sons April Auction

An account of James and Sons’ April auction.

This Wednesday saw James and Sons’ April auction, the first of three auctions that are devoted entirely to an old client’s collection of stamps, postal history and first day covers (these auctions are interleaved with regular general sales, of which our next will be on May 18th). This post looks back at the day.

A GOOD AUCTION

With a large number of bidders registered, many of them newcomers, we were hoping for a good sale, and we got it in spades. Lot 66 attracted some lively bidding and ended up fetching £80. Lot 85 went for £100

A complete set of FDCs depicting the 1999 Treble Winning Manchester United.

Lot 120 netted £150 after some brisk bidding.

Lot 132 was the most remarkable story of the auction. It included some rare Wonderland stamps, and with the bidding starting at £30 an amazing stampede by online bidders pushed the final price up to an eye-popping £540!

Lots 161-9 were sheets of railway stamps. Two of those lots had attracted my own attention, but I was outbid on them – professionally satisfying, while personally disappointing.

Lot 198 saw another bidding war, a starting price of £60 mushrooming to £200.

Lot 204 raised £65.

Lot 278 was a consolation prize after the railway stamps got away – my opening bid of £8 closed proceedings.

Lot 295 was another I might have been interested in, but the price went too high for me, not very surprisingly in view of Terence Cuneo’s status:

Lot 302 soared to £170.

Lot 396 went to m5 for £55. If you are wondering about this price, which is more than I normally bid for a single lot, it was for a large box of FDCs which I knew to contain some quality railwayana and I was expecting it to comfortably pay for itself – I would select the stuff I wished to keep and would sell the rest. I have already split this lot into the stuff I intend to keep for myself and the stuff I wish to sell. The stuff I will be looking to sell includes some football FDCs and some military FDCs as well as some other stuff.

Here are some pictures showing the division of this lot as it stands currently…

The lid (at rear) contains the stuff I don’t want to keep, while the body of the box contains the stuff I am keeping.

Lots 444 and 445 attracted plenty of bidders, going for £130 and £140 respectively, while lot 489 fetched £100. I have no images for these lots, but lot 462, which I snagged for £8 is below:

These images were taken at home yesterday evening.

The auction took almost five and a half hours (about half as long again as would be expected for a 500 lot auction), and I followed it from home via www.easyliveauction.com.

FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Just a few pictures from walks near my home:

Christmas Update

A brief account of my Christmas period and how I managed to enjoy it in spite of limitations imposed by current state of health.

INTRODUCTION

In this post I will tell the story of my activities since Monday, and the continuing tale of rhe improvement in my state of health and happiness. There are plenty of accompanying pictures.

MONDAY – MAINLY ADDENBROOKES

Unlike the previous Monday this day although still fairly long went basically smoothly, with my treatments running exactly as planned. I was by this stage sufficiently improved to walk around the main hospital building rather than using a wheelchair. In preparation for the day I had selected three books from my shelves, and this proved a wise choice as I read all three while at the hospital.

I took some photos of some of the artwork on display at Addenbrookes as well…

P1210565 — These displays of famous people associated with Cambridge were created by the legendary Quentin Blake who cut his teeth as Roald Dahl’s illustrator.

P1210568 — I am particularly glad to see Rosalind Franklin credited in this panel (something neither Watson nor Crick did at the time after being shown her work without her having been consulted)

CHRISTMAS DAY – COLUMBIA WAY AND NELSON STREET

I was not entirely sure how I would cope with Christmas Day itself. My sister arrived at my home to pick me up at about 10AM, dropped me at Nelson Street where my aunt lives and the went to wash, change and wake up my nephew (the latter being by some way the hardest task!). A cup of coffee taken in the kitchen was a good start. Managing the stairs to use the toilet (had this proved beyond me there was a downstairs flat we could have accessed) was also good news.

Lunch was excellent, and in accordance with the advice of Research Nurse Rebecca Bradley I consumed limited quantities of alcohol (one small glass of fizz and another of white wine).

After lunch we opened the presents, which went very well. The last present was unwrapped just before 4PM. At this point I decided to call it a day and get my lift home. I walked to Boal Quay car park where the car was waiting.

Here are some pictures from the first part of Christmas Day…

P1210569 — The first five pictures were taken at my bungalow in the morning.

P1210574 — The cup I had my coffee in at Helen’s

P1210578 — Close up shots of the woodburner (using the zoom lens)

P1210584 — A tiling pattern in the kitchen.

P1210587 — Mr President put in an appearance among the presents!

One of my presents (I had already had a lot of stuff in advance, so most of the stuff I got on the day was small) was a stamp album with a few “Hagner” style pages. I devoted a little time to displaying some of the stamps that John from Musical Keys had given me while I was in hospital, and also to selecting some postcards to go in a little display album I had for them. I have yet to photograph the postcards, but here are some stamp pictures…

P1210592 — Animals, Cras, Boats and Mountains

I took one more picture, of my largest railway map, spread out on the carpet:

BOXING DAY

My Boxing Day began on Australian time as I wanted to listen to the test match from the MCG. For a Pom it was a very satisfying listen as India finished day 1 strongly placed on 215-2 with Pujara and Kohli going well together. So far today is going quite well – the district nurse was happy with my temperature and blood pressure readings (the latter at 118/69 were about as good as they have been anytime in the last two months) and I although tired I am not experiencing any sort of adverse reaction to yesterday.

Two Upcoming Auctions

Previews of James and Sons’ June Auctions.

INTRODUCTION

My empoloyers, James and Sons, have two auctions coming up in the next week. On Wednesday we are at Fakenham Racecourse for a general sale featuring a wide range of items, and on Saturday we are at The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich for an auction of old, rare cigarette cards. In tbe rest of this post I will give you a preview of both auctions.

CIGARETTE CARDS

The cigarette cards are the first part of a huge collection submitted to us by former Lord Mayor of London Sir Brian Jenkins (he has already expressed his appreciation of this catalogue). Here, as a link to the official catalogue listing on the-saleroom.com is a picture of the front cover of our printed catalogue:

It was my employer who selected the 1896 cricketers set to feature on the front cover, and me who chose the particular cricketers to feature (and, of course, took the photograph). Although W G Grace turned 48 during the course of the 1896 season he still also scored over 2,000 first class runs in it (in 1895 he had set two new records, completing his 100th first class hundred, the first to so, and also scoring 1,000 first class runs in the month of May (starting his season on the 9th and reaching his 1,000 21 days later) including 301 against Sussex. K S Ranjitsinhji deprived the old master of a record he had held since 1871 by racking up 2,780 first class runs in the season beating WGs old tally of 2,739. He also made an extraordinary test debut. On day 2 after Australia had racked up a big score he contributed 62 to England’s first innings, and then in the follow-on he reached 41 not out by the close. Then, having totalled over 100 runs on his first day as a test match batsman he added another 100 before lunch on his second, taking his overnight 41 to 154 not out. In spite of these heroics Australia needed only 125 to win, although a lion-hearted spell of fast bowling from Tom Richardson (6-76) ensured that they had to work for them, the eventual margin being three wickets.

Here a few photographic highlights:

2001 — This is the first lot of the auction

Lot 2010 features in our printed catalogue…

2010-a — I also gave The Bard the close-up treatment.

2027-a — …from which I singled out Herbert Sutcliffe, an embodiment of the phrase “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” – first-class average 52.02, test average 60.73, ashes average 66.85.

2029 — Not difficult to select Meteora from this set!

2050 — A Railway set given exhaustive treatment.

2237 — Having earlier honoured Herbert Sutcliffe with a close up…

2237-a — …I now did likewise for his most famous opening partner, Jack Hobbs

2279 — The close-up I chose from this set features in our printed catalogue.

2279-a — This card is the first time I have even seen mention of a middle name for Hedley Verity (1956 wickets at 14.91 in a decade of doped pitches and Don Bradman’s batting).

2291-c — The Rocket, officially the world’s first steam locomotive.

LOTS 2412 AND 2413

These are the two really old sets of cricketers, one of which is valued very highly, the other somewhat less so.

2412-b — …and this is the front cover image

2413 — For this lot I added a couple to the close-up images

2413-a — As well and as Grace and Ranji I featured C B Fry and Gilbert Jessop (the fastest scorer in first-class cricket history – 79 runs an hour, in spite of the fact that for virtually his entire career a ball had to be hit right out of the ground as opposed to merely over the ropes to count six) – I reckon that if you could send a time machine to fetch him he would fetch decent money at an IPL auction!

THE GENERAL AUCTION

I finish this auction by linking to the catalogue listing for Wednesday’s auction:

Most of the books in this auction were described and valued by yours truly, which may give them a chance of selling (but I am not holding my breath.

Setting The Stage For Tomorrow And Monday

Setting out my stall for tomorrow and Monday, answering one problem and setting another. Also demonstrating the creation of a poster.

INTRODUCTION

Between work, an important meeting on Tuesday and editing photographs from last weekend I have not been able to put up any blog posts since Monday. This post will set out what is on the agenda for tomorrow and Monday, give a solution to one problem and set another.

UPCOMING

I have already produced two posts in my “Autism Events” series, which take that story up to the end of the Norwich event (see here and here), and covering Saturday’s event in London will certainly take two posts, possibly three. Additionally the photographs I have of the journey between King’s Cross and Uxbridge will form the backbone of a couple of posts (at least) on my London transport themed website.

A SOLUTION

In Midweek Medley III I posed the following problem:

Below is the answer and a published solution from brilliant.

A NEW PROBLEM

Another one from brilliant:

CREATING A RAILWAYANA POSTER

This is one of the tasks I had to perform at work this week. I actually produced two versions due to a dispute over which photograph to use as the official sample. The brief was to produce a poster that looked like the front cover of a catalogue, advertising the fact that part 1 of the W A Sharman collection of iconic steam locomotive photographs will be going under the hammer:

Dent Head Viaduct main — This was the choice of former railway worker Paul, one with which I am in full agreement…

Nicholas Nickleby main — …but auctioneer David liked this one, so I produced two versions of the poster. These images were obtained by scanning the original photographs at 600dpi.

SharmanSM1 — This is a screenshot of my preferred version.

Flyer 2 — I also produced flyers for Paul to use at an event he was attending.

Below are the links to the original word documents.

Sharman poster 1

Sharman poster 2

In Between Auctions

Brief mentions of last week’s auctions and a longer look ahead to the March auction.

INTRODUCTION

Last week James and Sons had two auctions, a small postcard auction on Tuesday and a much larger Postal History and Ephemera Auction on Wednesday. We are now moving towards completing the catalogue for an auction on March 28th which will feature a wide variety of stuff. We have snow around at present, which is provoking the usual British display of wimpiness about rough weather – I was supposed to be attending a meeting in Swaffham this morning but it has been cancelled due to concerns about the weather. This was the view out of my door at 8:30 yesterday morning as I set off to catch the bus to work.

The view is similar today.

THE POSTCARD AUCTION

With only 134 lots going under the hammer this sale was over and done with quickly. Most of the lots found buyers.

EPHEMERA AND POSTAL HISTORY

The centrepiece of this auction was a collection of the Ecclesiastical and Political Correspondence of the Rev J Marriott. The people currently in charge of the property he bought had got wind of this collection, which meant some big money sales, because they were determined to secure as much of it as they could to reunite it with his old home. Lot 18 on its own went for over £2,000:

The stock for this auction as displayed in the shop.

The original image of lot 18. It must have taken a lot of brass neck to produce this petition.

THE UPCOMING AUCTION

Our auction on March 28th will start with some sporting memorabilia, including a framed ticket for the 1923 FA Cup Final (the first to be played at Wembley, just three weeks after that stadium was completed). For the record Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United to win that year’s FA Cup. I do not yet have a lot number for this item, but it will be early in the auction.

A standard price for a ticket from this fixture in this condition is in the region of £800.

We have some old fishing reels and som billiards stuff as well…

Lot 23 (two images, a sample of the fishing reels)

The billiards memorabilia begin at lot 44 with the first of two scoreboards

From lot 46-58 inclusive are cues, first four lots of large numbers of loose cues, and then individual cues in cases or bags, starting with lot 50 pictured here.

Then from lot 59 to 71 we have sets of balls – note that in billiards there are two cue balls, one of which is distinguished from the other by the presence of a black spot, and the only other ball used is one red one.

We also have some bygones, of which I will feature a few that particularly caught my eye while I was imaging them:

Lot 124 – the fiugurines are made of some sort of balck ceramic, and as the second image, a close-up of two them shows, they are of very good quality.

147-a — …that can be used to store trinkets.

Other categories featured include toys, crockery, and though I have not yet had any to image, stamps. Here are some toys and crockery…

Toys in a box that has been disguised to look like a book (lot 262)

265-a — Lots 264 and 265 occupy the next four images.

The next 12 images encompass lots 301-4.

SOME EXPERIMENTS IN WATERMARKING

We have a vast collection of railway photographs, taken with a Soviet-era camera which is also in our possession and will be going under the hammer. Obviously we need to identify our images of these pictures as just that – our images – in order to stop unscrupulous types from printing the pictures out for no more than the cost of ink and the appropriate paper. Hence, I have been looking into watermarking the online pictures. I am aiming at marking the pictures in a way that will not interfere with anyone viewing them, but will prevent anyone from cheating. Here is a sample of what I have arrived at us possibly the best solution:

The positioning of the watermark does not spoil the picture, but does prevent it from being removed, since cropping the image sufficiently to eliminate it most certainly does damage the picture.

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