Submitted by aarAdmin on Thu, 05/02/2024 - 00:00
Items owned by prominent Australian sporting figures Nathan Buckley and Maureen Caird scooped the pool at Melbourne-based Leski Auctions May 1 Sporting Memorabilia sale when almost 600 lots went under the hammer.
Caird’s 1968 Mexico City Olympic gold medal for winning the 80-metres hurdle event (lot 584) was a bonanza $36,000 on a $20,000-$25,000 catalogue estimate – showing yet again how much Olympic memorabilia is prized among collectors.
Several other items – including her Australian team blazer, singlet, carry bag and official lapel badge – also were snapped up at the auction.
Many of Buckley’s more than 200 memorabilia items attracted strong bidding – none more so than the jumper he wore when winning the Norm Smith medal for best player afield in Collingwood’s losing 2002 Grand Final against the Brisbane Lions.
Marked as lot 265, the jumper was knocked down for $16,000 on a $3000-$5000 catalogue estimate and, as one TV commentator said, imagine what it would have sold for if he had won.
Several of his other jumpers also sold well – including his 2003 Grand Final guernsey (lot 277) for $6500, and his 2003 home and away and 150th game jumpers (lots 275 and 251) each for $5500.
A specially constructed composite 2003 Brownlow Medal guernsey (lot 283) created from Collingwood, Adelaide and Sydney jumpers – to commemorate the tie between Buckley, Mark Ricciuto and Adam Goodes – was an incredible $12,000 purchase on a $1000-$2000 estimate.
One of Collingwood’s best ever players, Nathan Buckley is an Australian Rules Football League legend who played 280 senior games, was joint winner of the 2003 Brownlow Medal for the league’s best and fairest, gained seven All-Australian selections and won six Copeland Trophies as his club’s best for those years.
Appointed Collingwood club captain in 1989, Buckley retired at the end of the 2007 season after 161 games at the helm. He also is member of Collingwood’s Team of the Century and the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
After early stints as an Australian Institute of Sport-AFL assistant coach, Buckley eventually joined Collingwood in the same capacity before in 2012 taking over as senior coach. His career lasted 10 years and he took the club to a 2018 Grand Final narrow five-point loss in that time.
Historic 1902-1913 correspondence between Geelong Cricket and Football club secretary Charles Brownlow (after whom the Brownlow Medal is named) and Alec “Dookie” McKenzie (lot 386) was an extremely valuable collectable at $16,000.
McKenzie played 87 Victorian Football League games for Geelong between 1902 and 1908 and the lot comprises 43 original letters, two cards and 10 notices sent by Brownlow in his club secretary capacity.
Leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett, who played 37 Tests for Australia between 1924 and 1936 taking 216 wickets including two five-wicket hauls in 1925 on debut against England, was another prominent auction figure through two of his baggy green caps.
One, lot 84, is his 1935-36 cap for that season’s South African tour sold for $14,000, and the other, the 1931-32 South African tour baggy green (lot 68), for $11,000.
Australian fast bowler Alan Connolly’s baggy green (lot 117) from his 1969-70 tour of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) was another strong performer at $8000. Connolly played 29 Tests and one One Day International from 1963-1971.
An original photograph of legendary Australian batsman Victor Trumper from his February 1913 benefit match (lot 27) – containing the original signatures of his New South Wales XI teammates and Rest of Australia XI led by fellow Test batsman Clem Hill – was a pleasing result for the vendor, going under the hammer for $11,000.
Walter Lindrum, Australia’s professional world champion billiards player from 1933 until his retirement in 1950 – and the best ever exponent of the game – is remembered through a leather carrying case containing three ivory presentation billiard balls (lot 12) that he won in 1915 aged 16 for a 434 break in a championship match and which sold for $7500.
