Latest News & Items

Calling time on Just Fontaine – a French football legend, RIP

16th March 2023

We love discovering sports memorabilia with great stories. Recently we acquired one of Just Fontaine’s commemorative watches, which fills exactly that brief. The wristwatch is inscribed to dial “Just Fontaine. World Record 13 goals 1958-1998”. Fontaine, French football legend, presented one of these watches to each of the twenty two members of the French 1958 […]

Sporting Legends we have lost

19th January 2023

When we sent out our first New Stock Catalogue of the year, we realised it had been a while – too long! – since our last one in September. We reflected on the sporting legends we had lost just since September – way too many. We thought we’d like to make at least brief mention […]

Argentina wins the 2022 World Cup for the third time

22nd December 2022

Croquet

Croquet

Croquet's origins are hard to pin down as with many sports. It came to England via Ireland in the 1850s where a game called crooky had been played since the 1830s. There is some suggestion that croquet has even earlier origins in 14th century Brittany & southern France.

By 1861 Routledge had published his 'Handbook of Croquet', the 1st croquet rule book, which essentially still governs the game. By the 1870s, there were American & Canadian versions of Croquet instructional & rule books too. Croquet literature & memorabilia has since burgeoned, documenting the 'killer' sport.

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