Wow – what an event! This was our third year at Olympia and we sold double the amount of the previous two years combined! Amongst the gems we found new homes for was a 10th edition Lambert and Bowen’s very scarce account of Mr R. Slade Lucas’s English Cricket Team tour of the West Indies during the season of 1895.
Andrew Marr was on hand to formally open the show (though he didn’t visit our stand – sob!) and on the first evening the firm of Peter Harrington caused hearts to flutter by selling a first edition of Joyce’s Ulysses for (wait for it …) £275,000. Apparently a British collector was the purchaser. We also had a stand at the nearby PBFA fair in Novotel, Hammersmith, which was a rather flat affair and poorly populated. My feeling is that the wildly unattractive setting in some dungeanous basement underneath the hideous Novotel just off Hammersmith roundabout must have something to do with it. Next outing for us is Cheltenham on Sunday, July 12. Should be fun, annd they say the beer taste good down West. Oo-aargh!

Who played cricket for England and football for Scotland?