Historic watch back to owner

IAN FRIEND’S still scratching his head in wonder.
He’d thought a family heirloom fobwatch, presented by 19th Century indigenous Aussie great Johnny Mullagh to his great-great-grandfather _ but stolen in 2009 _ was gone forever.
The fobwatch, presented to Mullagh in 1868 by the “gentlemen of Sussex for his fine display of cricket” during a famous Aboriginal cricket tour of England, was stolen from a safe in Mr Friend’s real estate office at Point Lonsdale.
But a mysterious phone message while he was holidaying in Queensland recently changed all that.
“I’ll make your day. Ring me back,” the caller told Mr Friend.
It more than made his day.
The caller had bought the fobwatch and after Google researching the inscription on the back, referring to ’68 rather than 1868, found an article pointing to the theft from Mr Friend’s RT Edgar office.
“I didn’t know what was going on – I thought I’d won Tattslotto,” he told the Independent this week.
“I rang him and he said he thought he wanted it to go to the right owner. It fell into the right person’s hands.
“It was a bit of a miracle, you wouldn’t have expected that. I thought it was dead and buried.”
Mr Friend said the thief must have failed to realise the age or value of the fobwatch, which Mr Friend’s anonymous benefactor bought for just $300.
“It’s probably one of the first mementoes won by an Australian playing sport overseas,” Mr Friend suggested.
The fobwatch was presented to Mullagh after making 1689 runs and claiming 245 wickets on the tour.
He later gave it to team captain-coach Charles Lawrence, Mr Friend’s great-great-grandfather, and it has been in the family for five generations.