Nothing else in this category reached four figures, but illustrated top right is a copy of a programme produced for the 1926 Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City F.A. Cup Final in which the former’s inside right, Jack, scored the only goal. I am sure that I have seen this stylised programme design before, but I had never before looked closely at the two players depicted – one of whom appears to have committed a gruesome tackle from behind; or perhaps the fellow in the striped shirt is trying what has become one of today’s most popular attacking ploys, a dive in the penalty area. It sold at £800.
Where rugby is concerned, a match programme-cum-souvenir brochure for a Cardiff v South Africa game played at Cardiff Arms Park in June, 1907, was sold at £400, and that issued for a Scotland v South Africa match played at Inverleith in November 1912 reached £470, but the most sought-after of 200-plus lots of rugby programmes offered by Anthemion was that seen bottom right, issued for a Wales v New Zealand international that had taken place at the Arms Park in December 1905.
Showing assorted creases, nicks, tears, a certain amount of soiling and the odd rusty staple mark, it has also been repaired at the spine with tape, but rugby programmes are at last fetching high sums and this one reached £1750.
Issued by Lipton’s Tea in March 1925, a 24pp souvenir of a 1925 Test Match between Ceylon and a side that the catalogue termed the Europeans, was bid to £520, and a 1999 Centenary Test Dinner menu signed by numerous Australian and English internationals sold at £300, but the most expensive of the cricketing lots, at £600, was a 16pp brochure or catalogue issued in December 1894 in connection with the Sussex County Cricket Club Bazaar held at the Hotel Metropole in Brighton. Retaining its upper pictorial wrapper, the brochure lists a collection of cricket trophies, curios, historical bats and balls, pictures and prints arranged by W.L. Murdoch and A.J. Gaston.
A programme for the 1963 heavyweight fight at Wembley between Henry Cooper and Cassius Clay was sold for £170 and a complete set of 25 golfing cigarette cards issued by Players in 1939 brought £200.
The Welsh sporting pages
NEARLY 1300 lots were offered by Anthemion Auctions of Cardiff in an April 21 sale of sports memorabilia and among the soccer programmes, there was a bit of a shock when a 1945 programme for a Newport County v Chelsea match, valued at £30-40, was bid to £2600!
