Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery
By Grahame Lloyd, Celluloid, 232 pp £14.99
In 2008 Grahame Lloyd published Six of the Best, a 40th anniversary celebration of
Garfield Sobers’ six sixes in an over against Glamorgan. The author’s researches for
that book coincided with the ball that had allegedly ended ‘halfway to Swansea’
suddenly re-emerging in a Christie’s catalogue with a mystery buyer paying £26,400
to acquire it. At the time Lloyd was not alone in questioning whether the ball was all
its auctioneers claimed it to be. His certainty that its provenance, based largely on a
certificate signed by Sir Garfield, should never have been so readily accepted by the
world’s leading auction house set him off on a mission that is now recorded in mindboggling detail in this follow-up book.
Howzat? is the product of diligent and disciplined investigative journalism in which
all involved in the Christie’s sale had one simple question to answer: how come a
Duke ball was featured in the catalogue when bowler Malcolm Nash and other
Glamorgan players insist that those used by the county at the time always came from
Stuart Surridge? To muddy the waters, a myth has taken root that Nash’s final
delivery was with the third ball used in the course of the over - despite BBC film
making clear that balls thumped into the stands were returned. Hence, when the
mystery ball, still a Duke, popped up again in the spring of 2012 in a Bonhams
catalogue, Lloyd’s protestations eventually prevailed and it was withdrawn from sale.
Entertaining no hopes of finding the real ball, Lloyd set out to discover what had
become of the Duke imposter after it left Christie’s. In a saga of evasiveness and
obfuscation his enquiries met a never-ending sequence of barriers. Denials of personal
involvement, purported problems in tracing correspondence and notes on meetings,
not betraying client confidences, needing to take legal advice….these were just a few
of the stratagems Lloyd encountered from almost all quarters in his relentless quest
for the truth.
Despite all this, he uncovered the successful bidder, a London dealer acting for an
undisclosed client eventually located in India. The client, Lloyd soon discovered, was
a larger-than-life character who had fallen on hard times with his many business
interests and had never been in a position to clear his cricketing memorabilia through
Indian customs. As befalls unclaimed items, the ball found its way to an enforced
auction, where it was picked up for about £300 by a purchaser later established as the
man who had offered it to Bonhams. This individual proved to be the most elusive
and irritating of all the characters with whom Lloyd had to deal. Masquerading as a
man who had paid a premium on the Christie’s price, he engaged in a bewildering
battle of e-mails with Lloyd, who was left wondering at what stage he should play his
trump card – the knowledge that the ball had actually been picked up for a song.
There are straightforward and honest people involved in the mystery, none more so
than a former secretary of the Nottinghamshire Supporters’ Association who first
offered the ball for auction. If Garry Sobers emerges as an innocent but naïve helper
who made no personal profit, his one-time agent Basharat Hassan is seen in a more
rapacious light, while our own Andrew Hignell, as archivist for Glamorgan, advised
Christie’s in their pre-sale enquiries, but weaved clear of Lloyd’s pleas for further
information.
Initially wondering how the story could have the substance for more than a feature
article, I found Howzat? a compelling read. To the final page I retained hope of a
satisfactory outcome to the pursuit with the prospect of Christie’s eating a little
humble pie. Still entertaining the same hope, I have made one personal resolve: this
auction house is not on the short list of those I would ever choose to use.
Douglas Miller – Verdict 8
Journal, Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
Howzat? The six sixes ball mystery by Grahame Lloyd. Celluloid Ltd £14.99
The auction house, the book man, and the ball.
Many of you will remember 1968, and a few of you will recall Garry Sobers hitting
six sixes in one over off the unfortunate Malcolm Nash, at Swansea in August of that
year.
In 2006 I was at Christie’s watching the Duke ball supposedly used in that over sell
for £26,400. The buyer was Bernard Shapero, acting on behalf of a client. There were
many mutterings at the time that the ball was not “right”, and my Welsh neighbour
was baflled, as he was aware that Glamorgan used only Surridge balls in the 1960s.
The ball disappeared to Shapero’s client, only to surface again at Bonhams in 2012,
where Grahame Lloyd, who had already written a book on the famous over, finally
persuaded the auctioneers to withdraw it from sale.
This is the story of Lloyd’s attempt to establish why Christie’s catalogued and sold
the ball as genuine, and to find out what happened to it between its sale at Christie’s
and reappearance at Bonhams. It reads like a detective story, with an array of
colourful characters including those known to the book trade, - Bernard Shapero
(named “The Book Man” by Lloyd), and Rupert Neelands, David Convery and Max
Dunbar of Christie’s. Shapero comes out of it quite well, but Christie’s must hope few
people read this.
Christopher Saunders
Newsletter, Antiquarian Booksellers Society