ON November 10 we told how a 1941 edition of Wisden, “liberated” from the library of Oflag VIIB prisoner of war camp by DLI second lieutenant and future Durham County cricketer Keith Jackson, had been discovered and was for sale on Wisden’s auction site.

Its starting price was £50. It went for £540.

Such prices aren’t unusual. They’ve also been selling No 5 of the leather-bound 2011 almanac, an edition limited to just 150 books. Traditionally, numbers 1 to 5 have been given to Wisden’s cricketers of the year.

In 2011, however, one of the chosen quintet – believed to be the Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir – was summarily excised after the News of the World (RIP) alleged corruption. He was banned for five years.

No 5 was thus sold in the normal way. The book’s asking price began at £100. It went for £3,100.

Don Clarke, who marks the column’s scorecard on such occasions, has also won a 1912 edition in the weekly auction.

In the front is inscribed: “Wishing daddy a very happy birthday and many happy returns of the day from Niel. July 5 1912.”

Below it, in a different hand, is written: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Finis coronat opus.”

Neither Don’s Latin nor the column’s is up to a dependable translation – readers may know better – but it looks like a doleful end.

DON Clarke also draws attention to a petition headed “Ditch the Durham penalty points” calling on the ECB to show some clemency towards the county.

“The (24 point) punishment is grossly disproportionate to the offence,” it says. “The innocent suffer alongside the culpable.”

Started by Peter and Anne Savage in Amble, the petition now has more than 1,300 signatures – www.change.org/p/england-wales-cricket-board-ditch-the-durham-penalty-points

AFTER a couple of agreeable hours with Sharon and Bill Gayter – opposite page – round the corner to the Ebac Northern League match between Guisborough Town and Newcastle Benfield. Both No 3s are called Dylan McEvoy. “The odds against that must be incalculable,” says Guisborough secretary Keith Smeltzer. “I bet there aren’t another ten Dylan McEvoys in Britain.”

Clearly it’s all a bit much for Bill Perfitt, the club’s admirable press officer, who in his match report refers to Dylan Thomas. It’s swiftly followed by a correction: “We have not posthumously signed the late, great Welsh poet….”

THE Rev Canon Leo Osborn, former Northern League chaplain and chairman of the Newcastle upon Tyne Methodist district, has featured little hereabouts since his move to Rutland last year.

Now, however, Leo – a lifelong teetotaller – provides the somewhat surprising news that he has been awarded a loyalty card by the Steamin’ Billy Brewery for encouraging church council members to enjoy a post-meeting livener in the pub next door.

It offers £1 off all drinks. “Happily,” adds Leo, “it also extends to Fentiman’s ginger ale.”

NORTHERN League sponsor John Elliott, gaffer of Aycliffe-based white goods manufacturer Ebac, appears in great good fettle when we meet for a festive lunch. Chiefly, he insists, it’s down to a daily intake of cod liver oil tablets.

The day previously he’d shared his ever-cogent views with two House of Commons select committees – Brexit and industrial strategy – a few days before that addressed the Bank of England’s chief economists. That, in turn, followed a far-reaching interview with Italian television.

John hails from Lands, near Cockfield, attended Toft Hill school, left at 15. One of the few things he is unable to explain, alas, is the origin of the phrase – raised recently hereabouts – “like Cockfield band, just buggering about.”

On that note we again seek elucidation.

AN early Christmas present, former Hartlepool United chairman Garry Gibson sends a book of hitherto unpublished letters to the Daily Telegraph. He’s in it.

“Sir – My wife’s two-year-old grandson lives in Perth, Australia, and currently has conjunctivitis. I now have conjunctivitis. He is the only person I know who also has it. I can only conclude that I have caught it via Face Time.”

Garry’s inscription at the front of the book is short. “Published at last,” it says.

ON Tuesday to the senior citizens’ Christmas party at the Black Horse in Tudhoe, Spennymoor, where former Spennymoor United player Gerry Hamilton looks across the road to buy a copy of the Northern League’s 125th anniversary history – still available from me, still just £4, still the best value book in sports publishing history. Email address at the top of the page.

….and finally, the five clubs with whom former Sunderland centre half Dave Watson won his 65 England caps (Backtrack, December 8) were Sunderland (of course), Manchester City, Southampton, Werder Bremen – for whom he played but twice after being sent off on his second appearance – and Stoke.

Today back to Durham cricket. Keaton Jennings’s debut century for England last week meant that four out of the last five men to achieve the feat for England had been born in South Africa.

Readers are invited to name the other three. The column’s out to bat again next week.