Sporting Memorabilia & Equipment

“They think it’s all over... it is now!”

A very rare Allcock Ariel reel with its original calf leather case sold for a wholly unexpected £6600 at Westenhanger Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) in Stanford, near Ashford, on April 13.

Like those London buses where you wait forever then two come along at once, two versions of a rare Olympic torch limited to just 33 examples turned up in separate Drouot auctions in Paris within the space of just ten days.

Bonhams are to hold golf memorabilia sales in Scotland starting in June.

It is not often that auctioneer Graham Budd finds his name splashed over the front pages of Estonian newspapers but when a particular group of cycling memorabilia came up at his November 4-5 sale it is exactly what happened.

Bill Mastro, once the biggest name in the US sports memorabilia business, has admitted to a federal judge that he doctored the world’s most valuable baseball card to make it appear in mint condition.

One of the most interesting things about auctions is how unusual objects from one side of the world come to be sold on the other, often with no apparent link.

Four historic football medals and a gold watch belonging to Heart of Midlothian FC were stolen by a thief who appears to have strolled in through an open door.

Eton College is now the new home of the world’s most expensive football programme.

Even in the collecting field of the ‘heroic age’ of Polar exploration where items reflecting incredible stories of human endurance seem to come thick and fast, there are still some that really take the breath away.

A Lonsdale Belt awarded to Welsh heavyweight boxing champion Jack Petersen has been stolen from his son’s home.

If you want to complete a collection of Olympic participation medals, then one in particular – that made for the 1904 Games in St Louis – is going to cost you a lot of money.

Almost exactly a year after Graham Budd set a record for any football programme at auction he has done it again.

Of more than 2000 different recorded horse brass designs, the most desirable are traditionally the so-called ‘merit awards’ given as prizes at working horse parades.

This Football Association of Wales 1893-94 Season green velvet cap with braided gilt wire tassel and embroidered dragon, will appear in the November 21 sale at Halls of Shrewsbury.

It is doubtless the source of a little irritation, or perhaps amusement, to members of the men-only Flyfishers Club of Piccadilly that the two largest salmon ever caught with a rod and line in British waters were both landed by women.

A large array of hunting items is to be included at Mitchells of Cockermouth’s sporting sale on October 13.

Jonathan Riley has a particular interest in a Wembley ticket from the 1953 match which shocked the world – he was sitting in the crowd mesmerised as the ‘Magical Magyars’ tore England apart 6-3.

While the eyes of the world have been on the 2012 London Games, the Olympic influence did not leave the auction scene untouched.

A pair of running spikes that belonged to double Olympic 100m and 200m gold medallist Usain Bolt sped to a £25,000 price at a Birmingham charity auction.