Copies of the first four editions of Wisden, the ‘Bible of Cricket’ and the world’s longest-running sports reference book, are for sale at Bonhams Book Sale in Oxford on Thursday, June 29.

They are being sold on behalf of Oxfam, as are many other items in the sale, but don’t carry Wisden in the title as the book only became the Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack in 1869.

Wisden was first published in 1864 by the cricketer John Wisden and a copy of this very first edition (only 112 pages long but expected to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000), plus those from 1865 (£2,000–3,000), 1866 (£1,500-2,500) and 1867 (£1,500-2,500) feature in the sale.