Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks,
Football & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
22nd, 23rd & 24th March 2024
Lot 793
Estimate: £700/1000
Hammer: £750
‘Arthur Wellard 1902-1980. (Somerset, England and Gaieties)’. Harold Pinter. Privately published booklet by the author 1981. 11 pages, frontispiece team portrait of the Gaieties C.C. including Wellard, original stiffened card wrappers, 8vo. This copy of this scarce booklet is accompanied by a two page handwritten letter, on ‘52 Campden Hill Square, London’ headed paper, dated April 27th 1985 from Harold Pinter to Mrs Wellard ‘Dear Mrs Wellard, Here is a cassette of my broadcast and some copies of the book. I did send you the book sometime ago and hope you received it. I remember Arthur with the deepest affection. He was a wonderful man. I do hope you are keeping well’. Signed ‘Warm Regards Harold Pinter’. Another hand written letter, dated the 3rd May 1985 (six days later) from Jack (Wellard’s Widow) to Bill (W.H.R.) Andrews (Somerset 1930-1947 sending a copy of Pinter booklet ‘I was very thrilled yesterday as a complete surprise to receive a parcel from H. Pinter, 6 books and a tape of one of there Gaiety Sunday clashes, he was always mad on Sunday cricket, so thought you would like a copy, you can keep it’. Signed ‘Jack’. Light vertical crease to the front cover of the booklet otherwise in good/very good condition. A rare booklet with accompanying letter from Pinter and Wellard’s widow. The vendor was given the booklet as a ‘thank you’ from Bill Andrew’s widow
A delightful short piece about Arthur Wellard, a Somerset legend. Wellard, in his seventies played for Pinter’s wandering team, The Gaieties.
‘In answer to your question my ‘Arthur Wellard’ is very scarce. Only about six on my shelves’ .Quote from Pinter in a letter previously sold by Knights
Harold Pinter CBE was a Nobel Prize winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. He was a cricket enthusiast, taking his bat with him when evacuated during the Blitz. In 1971 he told Mel Gussow, ‘one of my main obsessions in life is the game of cricket. I play and watch and read about it all the time’. He was a leading player and chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club from 1972 to his death. He died in 2008 at the age of 78 years
Arthur Wellard (1902-1960) was a “Tour de Force of the Cricket world” in England. He played for Somerset, England and the Gaieties. He spent his final playing years keeping an avuncular eye on a wandering team of “keen but erratic Home Counties amateurs” called the Gaieties CC, founded 1937. He was its coach, critic, confessor and counsellor, and his advice was based on decades of survival in the upper echelons of first class cricket. He died on the 31st December 1980 at the age of 78 years.
‘In answer to your question my ‘Arthur Wellard’ is very scarce. Only about six on my shelves’ .Quote from Pinter in a letter previously sold by Knights
Harold Pinter CBE was a Nobel Prize winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. He was a cricket enthusiast, taking his bat with him when evacuated during the Blitz. In 1971 he told Mel Gussow, ‘one of my main obsessions in life is the game of cricket. I play and watch and read about it all the time’. He was a leading player and chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club from 1972 to his death. He died in 2008 at the age of 78 years
Arthur Wellard (1902-1960) was a “Tour de Force of the Cricket world” in England. He played for Somerset, England and the Gaieties. He spent his final playing years keeping an avuncular eye on a wandering team of “keen but erratic Home Counties amateurs” called the Gaieties CC, founded 1937. He was its coach, critic, confessor and counsellor, and his advice was based on decades of survival in the upper echelons of first class cricket. He died on the 31st December 1980 at the age of 78 years.