TVNZ reporter buys Lochore jersey for $2560

TVNZ European correspondent Mark Crysell paid £1000 ($2560) for 1967 All Blacks captain Brian Lochore's jersey at auction in London overnight.

It was thought Crysell purchased the jersey himself, rather than on behalf of the state-owned broadcaster, auction company owner Graham Budd told NZPA.

"It was bought personally - he had a big adrenalin rush, he got very excited about the whole thing," Mr Budd of Graham Budd Auctions said.

Crysell brought two TV crews to the auction of the famous jersey at Sotheby's and was filmed buying it.

It sold for well above the £600-Stg800 it had been expected to fetch.

New Zealanders dominated the auction, Mr Budd said.

"It was nearly all New Zealanders - the whole auction, I would say, was exclusively New Zealanders."

Crysell also bought a silver fern blazer badge and a player-issue black and white scarf in the lot with the Lochore jersey.

He also purchased an Irish touch flag for £300. The All Blacks-Ireland match was never played because of a foot and mouth scare in Britain at the time.

Other 1967 tour memorabilia including a file of official photographs, original press photographs, luncheon and dinner menus (some bearing autographs), match programmes and tickets, souvenir newspapers and a folio of press cuttings; and two books on the All Blacks tours of 1963-64 and 1967 sold for £600 to a New Zealand collector.

The items had belonged to Richard Walker, the 1967 team's luggage and kit manager.

Walker, now just 62, from Shorne, near Gravesend in Kent, said he was given Lochore's jersey at the end of the tour.

" Unfortunately I have not kept in contact with any of them, although I have followed some of their careers with interest.

"To be connected with such a fabulous side was a great honour and experience for me."

- NZPA