Treasures of Sport

To coincide with the World Cup, the roadshow team present a special episode on the theme of sport, celebrating the history of both men’s and women’s football, rugby, cricket, tennis and the Olympics.

The episode features interviews with Olympic gold medallist Tessa Sanderson and trailblazing Paralympian Caz Walton, a surprise appearance by Welsh rugby legend Sir Gareth Edwards and the extraordinary story of the ‘Lost Lionesses’, who took part in the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico.

The roadshow team visit some of the UK’s most famous sports grounds, including Lord’s and Wimbledon, and see extraordinary sporting relics, including the shirt worn by Nobby Stiles in the 1966 World Cup and the coin that was tossed at the start of the final.

Roadshow experts also see the earliest rules of cricket and the first metal tennis racket, caps from the first rugby internationals and the blazer worn by record-breaking cricketer Betty Snowball, and an Olympic gold medal awarded to a runner who was the only one to take part in his race.

We begin with the country’s favourite sport – football. At the historic home of Fulham FC, Craven Cottage, Fiona Bruce meets a collector who not only has the jersey worn by World Cup-winning player Nobby Stiles but also the coin used to start the 1966 World Cup Final that England won 4-2 against West Germany.

Moving onto cricket, we travel to Lord’s Cricket Ground, where sports memorabilia expert David Convery gets to see the oldest-known written rules of cricket, dating back to 1727. These are an extremely rare piece of the sport’s history, and he values them at upwards of £300,000. Afterwards, Fiona Bruce investigates another piece of cricket history – the Ashes Urn.

From Lord's, we travel to the Stone X Stadium, home of Saracens Rugby Club. Here, Adam Schoon sees a selection of England caps given to some of the first players to represent their country, including one who tragically lost his life in the First World War.

We also share an unseen clip from our show in Swansea in 2025, where our expert Ben Rogers-Jones discusses two rugby statues, known as ‘Groggs’. One of them is of the Welsh rugby legend Gareth Edwards, who surprises Ben and the Groggs’ owner when he emerges from the crowd to give his opinion of the statue’s likeness.

Next, we join Hilary Kay as she is given exclusive access to the archives under Centre Court at Wimbledon. Here, we learn how the game evolved from its early roots in the gardens of country estates to attracting millions of viewers every year. We see the changing materials used for rackets and discuss how Wimbledon came to be associated with exclusively white clothing.

When uncovering stories from the Olympics and Paralympics, we meet four gold medal winners: husband and wife Hugh (cycling) and Anita Porter (swimming), who met on the plane to the 1964 Tokyo Games; multi-discipline Paralympic champion Caz Walton, who attended five separate Summer Games, winning 17 separate medals in that time; and finally, Tessa Sanderson, who shares the story of her 1984 javelin gold medal win at the Los Angeles Olympics, wearing the clothes she competed in over 40 years ago!

Finally, we return to Craven Cottage to hear the story of the Lost Lionesses. Siobhan Tyrrell meets players from the unofficial Women’s World Cup, held in Mexico in 1971. Leah Caleb and Gill Sayell were just teenagers when they travelled with the England team to play in front of over 90,000 supporters, having only played in front of handfuls back in the UK. However, on returning home, they were banned from playing for months due to the unofficial nature of the tournament. They wouldn’t discuss their experience for years afterwards, and amongst their kit and equipment, Siobhan hears how this story has finally come to be told.