Bob Hayton calls the bids in Hockey India League player auction

A SEVENOAKS man helped make sporting history last week by selling off hockey players for the inaugural Hockey India League, which starts next month.

Bob Hayton was in charge of the auction for the upcoming bonanza, which saw West Malling’s Ashley Jackson sold to the Ranchi Rhinos franchise for £45,000 ($73,000).

And Hayton, who admitted to knowing little about hockey, said it was a great experience for him and nice to see Jackson as one of the star attractions, with the Englishman fetching the sixth highest sum for any individual player.

“It will be a phenomenal pay day for him,” said Hayton.

“I know he is our star player and it was nice to see him do so well as a local man and with me being from Sevenoaks.”

It was a phone call out of the blue that prompted the 59-year-old’s involvement in the auction, with him and his wife Judith being flown out first class and put up in a hotel in order to oversee the star-studded auction.

And Hayton, who has been an auctioneer and valuer for about 30 years, said it was a great thing to be involved in, particularly with the high prices being paid for some of the world’s top players.

“I have not been involved in anything quite as exciting before,” he said.

“I have done property auctions, including in Dubai, but this would definitely be the most exciting.

“The aim of the tournament is obviously to increase the profile of the sport and with five franchises, each with a cap of $650,000, it was a thrilling auction.”

Hayton said it started slowly though, before taking off and lasting a gruelling 12 hours.

He said: “Once it got going, they seemed to get a bit carried away.

“One of the franchises was saying they wanted to spend more money, but it would have become unsustainable.

“It was a long day though and it took me a while to get my voice back after all the shouting.”