There are a LOT of signed items among the varied range of sports and their memorabilia in this New Stock catalogue. The autographs of the full, victorious 1911-12 England Ashes team are captured on a large album page, for example. Not to be outdone as ever, there is also a postcard signed by the 1934 Australia Ashes team. There are signed items from boxing, horseracing, football, rugby and even bobsleighing in St Moritz.

If you’re not looking for autographs, there are also fantastic scorecards, photographs, programmes and more. We have the official football programme for the iconic Austria v England ‘Lion of Vienna’ 1952 International to the arguably slightly quirkier 1946 Roller Speedway Programme. And, don’t get us started on the 1936 Springboard Championship photograph: take a look.

Sportspages’ New Stock catalogue

19th September 2019

We are back after a long, fantastic summer of sport and just in time to settle down for the Rugby World Cup in Japan. After the dramas of the Cricket World Cup, anything seems possible…

We’ve just put out our new catalogue – a sample of the stock that has been added to the website in the last couple of months – and there’s plenty more to come so watching!

i

13th June 2019

It’s just not cricket…or is it?

25th April 2019

One of the sport’s earliest organised matches was between Chertsey and the world’s first cricket club, Hambledon. Hambledon had an extremely strong team, including leading bowler, Thomas Brett, and captain, Richard Nyren. They hadn’t bargained on a genius batsman from Chertsey however. Thomas ‘Shock’ White came out to bat…with a bat as wide as the stumps! At that point, a bat as wide as you like was perfectly legal. It hadn’t yet occurred to anyone to play with an outrageously wide bat or to restrict their dimension. Funnily enough, Hambledon quickly put in a formal written protest and by 1774 the Laws of Cricket had been changed. The legal width of a bat was restricted to today’s maximum size of 10.8 cm.

One of the greatest cricketing names in history had a slightly questionable reputation for ‘gentlemanly behaviour’: W G Grace. Grace was known to be a notorious sledger – generally frowned on if not actually illegal in cricket. The great batsman was also said to have at times ignored being bowled out. He simply replaced the bails after a bowler had disturbed his wicket and carried on batting regardless. He was claimed to have told the ‘offending’ bowler, “They’ve come to watch me bat, not you bowl”, which may have been fair comment too. Obviously we all want well behaved, legal cricket teams to support and matches to watch but nothing beats a cricket match nailbiter to watch, especially with a bit of controversy thrown in too!