CRICKET and football enthusiasts in Bradford might want to head over to eBay over the next week or so, with one collector selling three nine carat gold medals from generations past until next Sunday.

David Copland, from Richmond, is retired but now enjoys collecting old medals and trophies, to avoid them been melted down for scrap.

He is honoured to have picked up this trio of gems, all belonging to an R.Illingworth, although it is unclear whether they are all the same person.

The first is a Bradford Football League medal from the 1910-11 season, the second was from a Priestley Cup win with Windhill in 1925, and the third was when Mr Illingworth captained Bingley to their first ever Priestley Cup success in 1928.

Taking up the story, Mr Copland said: "I get a lot of medals from jewellers that take on scrap gold and these three were being sold for their intrinsic gold value.

"They are all inscribed with R.Illingworth, but I assumed the football medal might belong to a father, as there's such a big gap between 1910 and 1928.

"I've not been able to establish whether there's a connection with (former Yorkshire and England captain) Ray Illingworth although there's possible a family connection, as I know he's from around here."

The cricket medals are particularly poignant to Mr Copland, who explained: "I used to work for Darlington Building Society and would hand out the medals at Kerridge Cup finals and I know how popular they are.

The Kerridge Cup is part of the North Yorkshire and South Durham League, which is that region's equivalent of the Bradford League.

"Nowadays, players just get wooden plaques but back then they were getting 10 or 11 grams of gold in their medals."

"Going over the listing and pricing, Mr Copland said: "They're all separately listed, just to broaden the interest.

"The football medal has a Bradford crest on and A.A.F.C. inscribed on it, although I'm not sure exactly which team that stands for.

It's got 5.5g of gold in it and I'm putting it on eBay for £69.99, which is basically the scrap price.

"If it was a Football League medal rather than a Bradford League one, it would probably be about double that.

"The 1925 Windhill one has 10.6g of gold in and its list price is £124.99, which is actually probably less than I paid for it.

"The 1928 is more pricey due to its prestige. R.Illingworth was the captain, and it was Bingley's first ever Priestley Cup win.

"You can rarely get hold of old Priestley Cup medals so this is one of the most prized items out there.

"I'd be very surprised if anyone at Bingley, or Bradford & Bingley as they are known now, has any of these medals from that time.

"It has 11.3g of gold in, and is listed at £224.99."

"I've put them all up on eBay for around what I paid for them, with me also having to pay commission to eBay to list them too.

"To be honest, if I could break even on them, I'd be more than happy.

"They're not hard to find on eBay either. If you just type in "Bradford League medal" and select newly listed, they should all come up straightaway."

Do you fancy buying into a piece of history? And who knows, maybe you can solve the A.A.F.C., or perhaps more importantly, the Mr Illingworth mystery?