Sir Geoffrey's auction collection and a glorious dose of nostalgia

HUW TURBERVILL: It is sad in a way that the collection is being broken up, but heartening that the items – which have starting prices ranging from £100 up to £30,000 – will be treasured by true aficionados

You can’t take it with you, and Sir Geoffrey Boycott appears to be taking stock of his possessions now he has turned 80. Christie's are auctioning many of his cricket treasures, online of course, until November 16.

It is sad in a way that the collection is being broken up, but heartening that the items – which have starting prices ranging from £100 up to £30,000 – will be treasured by true aficionados. Proceeds are going to the Air Ambulance charity.

Dare I go for anything without my wife finding out?

The Sir Geoffrey Boycott Collection has some real beauties.

Caps, bats and stumps are my general favourites, with a few odds and ends including a magnificent England tour suitcase: a truly wonderful way to antagonise a cricket-agnostic partner as you travel through Gatwick.

Let’s start with the cap collection.

Viv Richards’ maroon West Indies one starts at £4,000; if you can’t afford that, perhaps have a look at Clive Lloyd’s, which starts at £1,600 less. At £300 there’s also Rohan Kanhai’s navy blue West Indies cap – when did they switch colours, I wonder?

^{The bat used by Boycott in scoring his 100th first-class hundred is estimated to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000}

There’s no more famous cricket cap than Australia’s Baggy Green, and Greg Chappell’s starts at £3,200; or you can have a go at David Renneberg’s at £1,600. No, I hadn’t heard of him either. He played eight Tests between 1966 and 1968, none against England, so I wonder how Boycott was given this one. I always thought the Australians were fiercely protective of their caps…

The other nations are covered – Barry Richards’ South Africa one from 1970, presumably swapped with Boycott when he played for Rest of the World against England (£900); Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian blue (£2,400); Intikhab Alam’s Pakistan greenie (£200); Bryan Yuile’s New Zealand number (£200); and various ones of Boycott’s own including an England Test cap – a thing of beauty.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott puts 100th hundred bat up for auction

There are also various stumps that would look handsome in a glass display case over the mantelpiece, including one from his Test debut against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1964 (£100 – he made 48 then didn’t bat in the second innings after hurting his finger); from his ‘finest Test innings’ against the same oppo at the same ground in 1977 – his 99th hundred (£200); and a ‘captain’s stump’ when he led against Pakistan at Karachi in 1977/78 (also £200). 

The bat collection takes in his journey from Gray-Nicolls (one called the ‘run out’ bat – £800 – when Sir Ian Botham deliberately extricated him from the crease after scoring 26 from 80 balls when England were looking to push on at Christchurch in New Zealand in 1977/78); the County blade – that’s the £30,000 top item – that he made his 100th hundred with against Australia at Headingley in 1977; and the Slazenger one (£3,200) he broke the England Test runs record with, against the Aussies again, at Old Trafford in 1981 signed by both teams; and the lovely V12 he used for his final century against Surrey at Headingley in 1986.

^{Boycott's suitcase is one of 130 different lots in the collection (Credit: Christie's)}

There’s some fab classic and retro kit, including the lovely blazer England wore in New Zealand and Pakistan in 1977/78; their one-day tracksuit top from the West Indies tour of 1980/81; and England Test jumpers with that oh-so-iconic logo.

Have I told you my story about that? I got laughed out of a sports shop in Haywards Heath in Sussex in about 1980 asking to buy one – now anyone can purchase a replica. Who’s laughing now, eh?

Finally we come to the eclectic items. A scorebook from 1954 when he was 14. A plate listing his 100 hundreds called the ‘Aggers and Boycott practical’ referencing the classic on-air gag in 2018; a medal box (with a label on it saying ‘empty’ – well you didn’t expect it to be full, did you?); and a cartoon by Noel Ford with World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey putting a padded-up Boycott in goal for England ‘while he’s not too busy’ during his three-year Test sabbatical (1974–77). 

There are also two floppy hats – donated by Jack Russell perhaps? 

I saved the best until last – that MCC suitcase, in brown faux leather. The labels on it include ‘Jamaica Pegasus Hotel’ and ‘the Town House Adelaide’. Travelling the world, staying in top hotels, playing cricket for England, and being paid for it. Does life get any better?