THERE was a momentary pause and then the voice said: “One phone call could have avoided it”.

What could have been stopped? A murder? A robbery? The truth was the sale in 2006 of a piece of cricket memorabilia which claimed to be the ball hit by Gary Sobers for six sixes on a summer’s afternoon at St Helens, Swansea, on August 31, 1968. This momentous sporting achievement, the first time six sixes had been hit from one over, has for journalist and author, Grahame Lloyd yielded two books.

The first Six of the Best: Cricket’s Most Famous Over (2008) looks aback at this record breaking moment and the latest, Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery, (2013), shows as far as Grahame is concerned, the ball sold at auction was ‘not the real deal’ rather. Grahame will be talking about Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery, when he appears at the Taunton Literary Festival in November. The former Western Mail reporter, has spent 11 years piecing together all the evidence he can find including first hand testimony the Duke and Son ball which Christie’s sold as the six sixes ball could not in his eyes be genuine.

The three main strands of his argument are:

n Glamorgan only used cricket balls manufactured by Stuart Surridge and not Duke and Son.

n Only one ball was used not three balls in the one over. This can be checked when looking at the unedited BBC Wales coverage.

n Both John Parkin who was the non-striking batsman and the bowler Malcolm Nash, have stated only one ball was used during the over.

Grahame said: “Christie’s have consistently relied upon and cited a certificate of provenance signed by Sobers, which accompanied the ball - despite a mountain of oral and documented evidence confirming the contrary. I’m pleased to say that my book has borne out Sobers’ assertion that he was a “very innocent bystander.” I think he simply made a mistake by pulling the wrong ball out of his bag at Trent Bridge in 1968.”

Taunton Literary Festival November 3-24. Further details ticketsource.co.uk/brendonbooks