Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, is offering the ball used when Blackpool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the 1953 final. Stan Mortensen scored three goals - with help from his team-mate, Stanley Matthews (the game was nicknamed the Matthews Final due to his outstanding display, despite Mortensen's heroics).
It is estimated at £3000-5000 in the February 22 sale.
Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said: “The ball was given to Mortensen at the end of the game, which was watched by 100,000 fans on May 2, 1953. Despite Bolton going 3-1 up, Blackpool came back to win 4-3.”
Detail showing the stitching of the 1953 FA Cup final hat-trick football being offered by Hansons Auctioneers on February 22 estimated at £3000-5000 (photo: Mark Laban/Hansons).
Passed from waitress to electrician
The vendor is Chris Crook, 57, an IT business analyst from Dorking, Surrey, who explained the eclectic path the ball took to reach him: “The football was donated to an FA charity raffle, possibly the tribute dinner for Mortensen, at Blackpool’s Savoy Hotel on November 30, 1989.
“That event was attended by many of Blackpool’s former players and arranged to honour Mortensen’s 50 years of service for both Blackpool FC and the town.
“The football was won in a charity raffle by a waitress, who gave the football to her brother who lived in Sutton, London. When his power failed at home one Christmas Day, he called his electrician, Tom Brown, to fix it.
“Tom knew about the football and its pedigree and joked about it being given as payment for coming out on Christmas Day. After fixing the electrics, he was given the football as a thank-you.
“Tom was a great friend of my father-in-law, Harry Keith Simmons, and the ball was eventually passed down to me in 2007.”
Hanson added that the brown-leather, 18-panel football was “in a modern style for the period and would only have been used for internationals and finals. Back then, most footballs were of the cheaper laced variety."
Matthews' £5 a week
In August last year Hansons sold Sir Stanley Matthews’ first football contracts, showing he was paid a princely £5 a week. This story can be viewed by ATG online subscribers.
