When I published ‘Comb but not forgotten’ (http://www.takingthefield.com/stories/comb-not-forgotten) a few weeks ago I stated that there was nothing as strange at Lord’s museum as Malcolm Woodhead’s old comb collection. Today I decided I’d better actually check whether or not this was true so I consulted Heather Thomas our museum’s conservator, and she found me a selection of item’s that definitely rival Malcolm’s combs!
Heather: the gatekeeper of the weird and wonderful.
The first contender is quite famous. This poor sparrow was hit and killed by a Ball during a MCC v. Cambridge match in 1936. To honor the poor creature’s memory he was stuffed and mounted and displayed with his killer! Now I think that’s pretty weird, but it’s a very popular exhibit.
I chose this second item, mainly because I thought it was something else. I spotted it while Heather was going through a draw of cricket balls.
I cannot believe I’m the only person who thinks this looks just like a piece of dung! Well it isn’t apparently. It’s identified as “darkly coloured amorphous lump of unidentified material, possibly some form of resin”. The old catalogue card had it down as “BALL of raw rubber, used by native boys in the GOLD coast, 1905” – but this hasn’t been confirmed by the museum experts so I’m still going to think of it as old dung – which is a pretty weird museum exhibit outside a dedicated dung museum.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get weirder…(When Heather handed me this final exhibit a gagged).
Drum roll please…
…may I present…Denis Compton’s hip-joint!
There’s no joke – it really is the body part of a famous cricketer. It was presented to us by his surgeon who removed it when Compton had his hip replaced (obviously). It’s quite disgusting and definitely qualifies as a weird exhibit.
If anyone can beat that I will be impressed.
yuk
(The Lord’s Museum doesn’t just have weird stuff, we do have nice things too. Please come and visit us).
zoetakingthefield 