Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

David Frith was born in Gloucester Terrace, London in March 1937. In 1949 he emigrated with his family to Australia, arriving in Sydney aboard the RMS Orion. He started his working life as a copy boy for The Daily Mirror in 1954 for a short period, before moving on to banking with the Commonwealth Bank; he played cricket for the famous St George Club before moving onto Paddington C.C. He first met Bertie Oldfield in his sports shop in Sydney in 1951, buying his first bat from him and getting to know him fairly well, Oldfield gave him his Australian blazer worn on the 1930 tour of England during this time which started off David’s passion for collecting.

He returned to England in 1964, but after the death of his mother, family commitments led Frith back to Sydney where he sought a full-time cricket related post and thanks to a recommendation by Jack Fingleton, he did secure some work with the Australian News and Information Bureau. The return to Australia would prove to be short-lived and he moved back to the United Kingdom departing aboard the TSS Fairstar in 1972.

He succeeded Tony Pawson as deputy editor of The Cricketer Magazine in November 1972 before becoming editor from the March 1973 issue onwards. He founded Wisden Cricket Monthly and edited it from 1979 to 1996. In 1988 Frith won the Sports Council’s British Sports Journalism award as Magazine Sports Writer of the Year.

Frith has written dozens of books on both cricket in modern times and cricket of the past, mainly focussing on Ashes Test Match history. His major works include biographies of A.E. Stoddart, Archie Jackson and Ross Gregory; also ‘Pageant of Cricket’, ‘The Trailblazers’ and ‘Bodyline Autopsy’. He has also written ‘The David Frith Archive’ listing his vast collection of cricket memorabilia, books and ephemera which runs to 1100 pages. He has also successfully produced cricket videos and films; he presented an annual archive cricket film evening held at the National Film Theatre in London for thirty years. Frith became the first (and so far only) author to win The Cricket Society’s Book of the Year award three times in 2003 among other prestigious awards from home and abroad. He recently published his life story ‘A Paddington Boy’.

I first met David just after I had started my business in 1993 at a Cricket Memorabilia Society meeting. I was introduced to David and I think he mentioned me being the ‘new kid on the block’. He wished me well and finished our short conversation with ‘Garry Sobers has two ‘R’s in his name, don’t forget it’. He must have noticed the error in one of my initial auction catalogues. I have never forgotten those words! Attention to detail!

His cricket collection is vast, impressive and ecletic and I hope we have done justice to it in this first offering through our March auction.