IN THE SALEROOMS

Highest bid of the day was £18,820 gross for an 1846 watercolour of Parker's Piece, Cambridge, while £5646 was paid for a tinted lithograph of Felix's 1847 group of University and Town cricketers of Cambridge. The same payout acquired the original watercolour by John Corbet Anderson of Alfred Mynn (1857), and almost as much (£5175) was paid for a set (32 plus JR Mason) of Vanity Fair caricatures. With all the major dealers and keenest collectors present, the contests, lot by lot, left many a countenance glum.

Henry Bone's Blue Boy (c.1820) was another rarity taken to £4940 against a top estimate of £1764. Equally enticing was Wollen's action photogravure from the 1896 Lord's Test, which Rupert Neelands finally knocked down to Burlington Gallery. Best price for a JC Anderson was £2823 for the United All England Eleven of 1855. Lithographs by GF Watts all exceeded £1000, and a preparatory drawing of Trumper by Chevallier Tayler fetched £2352.

Further into the two-and-a-half-hour sale, nothing went cheaply from the selection of photographs of early Australian Test teams and scorecards, an extraordinary sum (£1764) being paid for a photograph of the Adelaide scoreboard after Clem Hill's 365 not out in 1900. Jack Hobbs's autograph book, with Webster and Mailey sketches among the numerous signatures, made £2823; the Windsor meat-dish £823; a full-length Parian figure of WG £1646; and the six Kinsella pottery figures of the lad in the sun-hat, sold separately, £2699, highest bid coming for The Catch of the Season (£823).

A surprise came in the shape of the six pewter beakers engraved with scenes from the Hayman picture. Made around 1840, they were among the treasures disposed of by MCC at the mammoth 1987 sale. They were bought then by Pilkington for £3800 plus premium of 10% plus VAT. Now, a collector from Swindon paid £2800 plus 15% premium and VAT and went home ecstatic.

ON THE BOOKSHELVES

Six Appealby Kersi Meher-Homji: Hi Marketing, 38 Carver Road, London SE24 9LT; 160pp, £8.99. Published just too early to include Wasim Akram's new Test recourd of 12 sixes in an innings, Six Appeal embraces many a tale of the big hit, the achievement that never fails to thrill. Steve Waugh is on the cover, having completed the most lucrative six in history (it earned him and his NSW teammates A$140,000). But all the renowned big-hitters are here: Jessop, Bonnor, Trott, Wellard, Constantine, Botham, and of course young Symonds. Keith Miller is rated specially for having six as well as sex appeal.

`Owzthat' Series of Prints: Bowlers with 200 Test WicketsDD Designs, 40 Willowbank, Tamworth, Staffs B78 3LS: ltd edn; 32 subjects; £19.95 each. Delightful series of portraits by Denise Dean, following successful series of Centurions and Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

County Cricket Club First-Class Records:Leics 1894–1996by Dennis Lambert: 130 pp, £8.75; Worcs 1899–1996 136pp, £8.75; Yorks 1863–1996 168pp, £9.50: all +50p p&p, from Limlow Books, St Peter's Hill, Litlington, Royston, Herts SG8 0QF. Comprehensive analysis of clubs' performances against all-corners, career records and all kinds of statistical breakdowns.

50 Years of the Lancashire Cricket Federation 1947–1997by Alan West: from D Sutcliffe, 3 East View, Cottage Church Rd, Todmorden OL14 8HP; 163pp, £10 + £1.50 p&p. The late Jim Gledhill, driving force behind the LCF since the start, left copious notes which have been converted into a history. The LCF has nurtured many colts into Lancashire and England players, notably Mike Atherton. From Gledhill's Biography, which covers was years, the story of so many Lancs lads presents a spot-the-future-star exercise. And in 1949 they experimented with numbers on the young players' backs.

Stansted Hall Cricket Club 1947–1997from Tony Debenham, 4 Vere Gardens, The Grove, Henley Road, Ipswich IP1 4NZ; 52pp, £3.75 inc p&p. Sincere commemorative by a Hertfordshire club, with a few evocative late-1940s pictures.

Ipswich School South Africa Cricket Tour 1997from Tony Debenham, as above; 52pp, £3.75 incl p&p. `Unfortunately, my time spent at the crease was not as long as I would have wished, but I did have some success bowling,' writes Tony Blair, one of many who contribute goodwill messages in a handsome tour brochure.

Cricket's Far Horizonsby Ian Ferguson: from Nicole Payne, van Halewynlan 230, 2274 TT Voorburg, Holland; 212pp, £15 inc p&p. Extended ramble off the beaten track: Australian bush cricket (including the partnership of 641 in a cup match at Buffalo River in 1914), the game in non-Test-playing countries, PoW camps, and reference also to women's cricket.

Vimto Bolton & District Cricket Association Season 1997from M Leeming, 3 Central Drive,Westhoughton, Bolton BL5 3DS; 264pp, £2.50 incl p&p. Longrunning yearbook now mirrors trepidation at possible losses to forthcoming Lancashire Premier League.

A Guide to Coaching and Youth Cricket in Worcestershire and its Bordersfrom WF Jones, 11 Bransford Road, St John's, Worcester WR2 4ET; 20pp. Just that.

 Richie Benaud: Cricketer, Captain, Guruby Mark Browning: Kangaroo, 152pp, £8.99. It's been quite a life: student, player, captain, Packer lieutenant, media-man. Benaud has produced a few books of his own, but could hardly have said some of the adulatory things expressed now by an admirer who never saw him play. He has come to be regarded as the father of television commentary. Who, watching him wheel away with his legbreaks at the SCG in the 1950s, could have foreseen that? Nowadays, the man who took 248 wickets for Australia is often asked, `Did you play cricket once?'

Postcard Series Aby Simon Fielding: set of 16; from him at 33 Greystoke Avenue, Sandyford, New-castle-upon-Tyne NE2 1PN; £9.99 + 50p p&p. First series, limited (and marked) to 500 sets, features top players from all Test countries, with Gough and Thorpe from England.

 MCC in South Africa 1938–39by Brian Bassano: JW McKenzie, 12 Stoneleigh Park Road, Ewell KT19 0QT; 250pp, £18. Most have heard about England's fourth innings of 654 for 5 at Durban in 1939, when they were chasing 696 for victory, and the yawnsome oddity of this `timeless' Test. As that sporting series in South Africa slips ever deeper into the past, a recap is worthwhile, including, as it does, match and tour details, some good photos, and a reproduction of the rare contemporary brochure. Lancashire legspinner Len Wilkinson, one of only five survivors from the series, writes a foreword and must be thrilled to find himself in action across the front cover.

My World Cupby Mark Mascarenhas: Antique Collectors' Club, 5 Church St, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1DS; 126pp, £29.95. President of WorldTel, who profitably conveyed the 1996 World Cup to the far reaches of the globe, the author begins with the complex story of his company's battle to secure and then sell on the rights to this lucrative tournament. The tussle in his native India was the most demanding. Mascarenhas records the sometimes shambolic opening ceremony, when the Italian producer apparently collapsed in fright, after which `our telecasts started to get rave reviews from around the world'. He had a good time socially, but even at the end there was brain-blowing tension; he had to pay $250,000 backduty to get his tons of equipment out of Calcutta. This minor coffee-table book continues with lively colour photos (mostly uncaptioned) and essays from Big Names on their particular countries. Boycott pinpoints England's problems in forthright fashion. Full scores are given only from the quarter-finals, which, as Imran remarks, was where the World Cup really started.

The Fine Art of Cricket MCC, Lord's; 72pp, £5 inc p&p. Attractive catalogue produced for this summer's enchanting exhibition at Lord's of many paintings, some on loan from other owners. A summary by Stephen Green of cricket's pictorial heritage precedes the reproduction and description of 41 pictures, some not all that familiar. (Arthur Mailey would have choked to have seen himself described as a native of New Zealand.)

Bolton Cricket League Hand-book 1997from J Salt, 16 Birkett Drive, Bolton BL1 7DE; 168pp, no price given. Record of'96, when Tonge were champions ( Iqbal Sikander 114 wickets at 14.41). Includes list of 100 Test players who have appeared in this league.

The Archive Photograph Series: Glamorgan CCCby Andrew Hignell: Chalford, 128pp, £9.99. From tentative entry into the Championship in 1921 (with pages on earlier minor-county days) to the present side of Maynard, Morris and Co. in contention for a third title, Glamorgan's story is traced in pictures (some frustratingly over-inked) and educated text. Many a half-familiar face looks out, alongside times of joy not only in 1948 and 1969 but when the Welsh beat the Australians (twice) in the 1960s.

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