1929 Derry City programme to go under the hammer

A DERRY City v Glentoran programme from the very first Irish League game at the Brandywell is up for auction in England on Thursday (February 21).

Also up for grabs is a rare green shirt worn by Celtic and Northern Ireland great Bertie Peacock when he lined out for the United Kingdom against the rest of Europe with Danny Blanchflower, John Charles and Stanley Matthews at Windsor Park in 1955.

Others legends to line out that day included a relative of current Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon, Lorenzo Buffon, and the greatest Austrian - Ernst ‘Clockwork’ Ocwirk - and Croatian - Bernard ‘Bajdo’ Vukas - footballers of all time.

The auctioneers say the original Derry City programme is from the club’s first game competitive game at the Brandywell, which was played against Glentoran on August 22 1929. The asking price is between £400 and £600.

Sporting Memories Memorabilia Specialists, of Coleshill, also have a rare programme from the club’s second home game against Ballymena on August 31, 1929.

A pair of locally produced Football Sports News papers - the first ever issues of which were put out during that first season - are also being auctioned.

The papers include line ups from a Derry City v Glentoran, Gold Cup second round tie.

A second issue from November 11, 1929 includes the line-ups from a Derry City v Distillery match although both newspapers are said to have faults.

Two single pages dating from 1932 are included in the lot, which the auctioneers describe as possible programme inserts.

The pages include a poem dedicated to one of the Candystripes’ first managers, Billy Gillespie, a Kerrykeel-native who joined Derry City from Sheffield United as player manager in 1932 after scoring over 100 goals for the Blades.

Another poem is dedicated to versatile halfback Frank Harkin. Both pages are dated ‘Derry 1932’. The asking price is £100/£120

A collection of 24 issues from both the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland dating from the 1950s are also up for grabs.

The programmes include the 1952/53 FAI Cup semi-final between Evergreen and St Patrick’s Athletic; the 1955/56 FAI Cup semi-final between Cork and Waterford; the 1957/58 FAI Cup semi-finals between Shelbourne and Dundalk, and between St Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers; a 1954/55 matches between Glenavon and Derry City, and Portadown and Glenavon; and a 1956/57 match between Derry City and Crusaders. The asking price will be between £80 and £120.

Local football aficionados will also be interested in picking up a rare green players’ shirt worn by Bertie Peacock during a United Kingdom versus Europe match played at Windsor Park on August 13, 1955 to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Northern Ireland Football Association.

The shirt, with number six on reverse, was given by Bertie Peacock to a good friend, who has kept it since that day.

The United Kingdom squad was captained by Danny Blanchflower (Spurs & Ireland) and also included such legends as John Charles (Leeds and Wales) and Stanley Matthews (Blackpool & England).

Meanwhile, the European side was captained by Ernst ‘Clockwork’ Ocwirk (Austria Vienna and Austria) and Lorenzo Buffon (AC Milan and Italy) in goal.

Other players who graced Windsor Park that day were Vujadin Boškov (FK Vojvodina Novi Sad and Yugoslavia) who went on to manage Real Madrid, Sampdoria and Napoli, Bernard ‘Bajdo’ Vukas (Hajduk Split and Yugoslavia) - later voted the greatest Croatian footballer of all time, Raymond Kopa (Stade Reims and France) and José Travassos (Sporting Lisbon and Portugal).

The asking price for Celtic and Ireland great Bertie Peacock’s shirt is between £600 and £800.

The live auction takes place on Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 12.30pm at the Coleshill Hotel, Coleshill, North Warwickshire.