The World of Cricket / Ashes Tests |
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Auction 300 includes several featured collections from well known sporting personalities. Here we give you brief history on the players and their cricketing careers. Auction 301 follows the 'World of Cricket' through the years and offers some great historical cricket memorabilia. Some fantastic items are being offered in this landmark two-day cricket sale, below are just some of the treasures you will find: Please see the catalogues for full descriptions.
The Keith Miller collection (Auction 300: Lots 145 – 202)
A cricketer of spectacular gifts, Keith Miller was one of Australia’s finest all-rounders. A natural athlete with a powerful physique, he was an aggressive, clean-hitting batsman, incisive fast bowler and sure slips catcher. A charismatic cricketer. he played with a cavalier disregard for records, statistics and conventions, and often appeared to make little effort when the game was dull or one-sided, requiring a challenge to rouse him to action. Miller was only 18 years and 66 days when he made his debut for Victoria against Tasmania, hitting 181 with only 4 boundaries. He represented his State in 14 matches between 1937/38 and 1940/41 before joining the armed forces as a pilot.
At the War’s end he played a vital role in the AIF team that toured England and India, batting with joyous abandon and revealing his dormant ability as a strike bowler. Miller made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1945/46. His Test career saw him selected in 55 matches, with 2958 runs scored, a highest score of 147 and an average of 37.97. He made 7 Test centuries. As a bowler, he took 170 wickets at an average of 22.97, his best figures (7/60) coming in the 1st Test against England at Brisbane in 1946. The 1956 series was dominated by Jim Laker, but Miller’s magnificent performance at Lord’s, where he took 5/72 and 5/70, gave Australia its one victory. His final Test was played against Pakistan at the end of the 1956 tour, injury keeping him out of the three Tests against India. (an edited selection from “The A-Z of Australian Cricketers”) We are honoured to be able to offer the following pieces, drawn from the mementos given by Miller to his sons. A small group of items from his Australian Rules football career will follow at a later date. 
The Paul Reiffel collection (Auction 300: Lots 357 - 430)
“Paul Reiffel was a nagging right-arm seam bowler and a very capable lower order batsman. Throughout a career which saw him appear in 35 Tests and 92 one-day internationals for his country, he was a player who distinguished himself with his ability to bowl an awkward line and length and to complement it with a capacity to cut the ball both ways off the pitch. His unstinting accuracy and control was also a key to his success. Reiffel experienced occasional problems with no-balling and was afflicted by a number of injuries that threatened to end his career at different times. But he remained an outstanding player and a highly valued member of Victorian and Australian teams for more than a decade.
The laid-back Reiffel retired from international cricket after forming a part of Australia's victorious 1999 World Cup side, and from his state at the end of the 2001-02 season.” John Polack – “cricinfo.com” Reiffels’ Test career: 35 matches, 50 innings, 14 not outs: 955 runs, highest score 79 not out, with an average of 26.52. As a Test bowler, he took 104 wickets at an average of 26.96, with a career best of 6/71 in the 5th Test v England in 1993.
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