Billy Wright scores at Ludlow – thanks to star French footballer

There was a lack of buyers for the top range £2000-5000 lots although two thirds of the lesser value entries were taken up.

And while on the one hand the international appeal of a rare silk 1930 World Cup parade banner, estimated at £30,000-50,000 failed to score with bidders – FIFA had expressed interest but failed to make an offer on the day and the banner was bought in – there was much greater interest in the consignment of a group of eight lots owned by Raymond Kopa, a football icon of the 1950s and 1960s.

Kopa played for France, from 1953 to 1963 at Angers, was European Footballer of the Year in 1958, and was a three times European Cup winner with Real Madrid 1957-1959.

However, the top lot of the Kopa collection was almost quintessentially English – the No. 5 shirt embroidered with a crown and lion cloth badge worn by Billy Wright which the English captain exchanged with Kopa after the match in Paris, on May 15, 1955. It was bought by a collector at £2500.

Kopa’s own French international No. 9 shirt, c.1952, estimated at £400-500, brought £750 and his signed c.1955-1960 white No.7 Real Madrid shirt fetched £1000.

These were two of three shirts bought by the football museum at Preston run by the Professional Football Association. The game is never over until the whistle blows and a reminder of the 1956 European Cup Final refereed by Arthur Ellis Halifax was the referee’s Thunderer Match whistle with a leather wrist strap. Engraved Finale Parc des Prince 13.6.1956, it went at a double-estimate £1000.

If Day One of the sale was dedicated to memorabilia from the Beautiful Game, the second day saw a mixture of sporting lots ranging from golf and cricket to boxing and billiards.

One of the day’s highlights came when a longnose golf club edged past its upper estimate to sell at £560.

The longnose scarred neck putter head with horn sole insert and lead back, c.1880, had recently been bought by the vendor from a car boot sale for £1. Of particular note was its Prince of Wales Feathers insignia.

Early golf clubs in good condition are sought after items and the succeeding lot, a second longnose putter, made £500. Made in fruitwood with a concave face, it was stamped A.W.McP and dated to the mid 19th century.

Mullock Madeley, Ludlow, December 1 and 2
Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per cent