In the books: Extensive Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack collection donated to club

Victorian Premier Cricket club Casey South Melbourne has regained a Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack collection that it started in 1898.

Garry Dougall with the collection of Wisden annuals.

Garry Dougall was astonished when he opened the boxes.

He had been told they contained books.

He quickly realised they weren’t just any books.

The three boxes contained Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks, more than 120 of them, and they had been donated back to Victorian Premier Cricket club Casey South Melbourne, where Dougall is involved as a past player.

Each Almanack is bound in leather and marked “S Melbourne Cricket Club’’.

The earliest edition is 1898 and in excellent order, as are most of the books. Some have not even come out of their wrapping.

As club officials understand it, a South Melbourne committeeman started the collection.

Former president and Victorian batsman Mick Taylor can remember the books “gathering dust’’ in the rooms at the Lakeside Oval in the 1980s.

But one way or another the Swans continued to buy the famous annual.

The 1898 edition of the Almanack.

In the 2000s, South, struggling financially, sold the books to John and Kerry Holdsworth for $15,000.

John Holdsworth’s death prompted his wife to donate the Almanacks back to the club.

She contacted Taylor, who picked them up and dropped them in with Dougall.

Kerry Boulton (Holdsworth) told Leader she and her husband bought the books at a fundraiser at a time when Graham Yallop was president.

“We were just cricket tragics,’’ she said. “My husband grew up in the area – his family moved here when he was eight years old – and so we’ve always been committed supporters of everything in the area, local sport especially.

“We were lucky enough to be in a position to help them out and we bought the collection from the club.

“But we always said that if they ever wanted it back, it would always be available to them. But I made a decision to donate it back to its rightful owners after my husband died in 2019.’’

The Holdsworths bought the collection from the cricket club and have now donated it back.

She said the books had taken pride of place in an antique bookcase at their home, “faithfully tucked away but on display just the same’’.

Dougall said it was “quite a responsibility’’ to become the temporary custodian of the Almanacks while the club decided what to do with them.

“That’s a challenge going forward, knowing what’s the best way to go,’’ he said.

“I’m flabbergasted at the condition of them. I’ve made an inventory and, although I’m not an expert, the state of the worst book is still good in my assessment.

“We’re going to form a special committee and consider all the options. They’re really valuable, which means you just can’t put them up in the clubrooms and expect them to survive. Some of them are 130 years old and they’re going to have to be preserved correctly.’’

He added: “You’ve got to see these books to understand what they really are. Mick dropped the boxes off here and took off and when I opened them it was just jaw-dropping, the production, the quality, the entirety of the collection. Just amazing.’’

The 2005 and 2006 volumes are missing and will be replaced.

Swans president Shaun Petrie said the club was most appreciative of the Holdsworths donating the books.

He said it was a reminder of the rich history of South Melbourne, which became Casey South Melbourne when it relocated to Casey Fields in Cranbourne in 2006.

Petrie said the collection and the story behind it enthralled him and had created great interest at the Swans.

The issues of safe storage, valuation and insurance would be worked through.

Petrie said Casey South Melbourne would also recognise the Holdsworth family’s role in buying and continuing the Wisden collection.