We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.

Accept
Skip to content
Avatar for...
Welcome Guest

Follow us:

Site logo image
  • Shop
  • Rent films
  • Donate
  • News
  • About
  • Access
  • Nature Matters
  • Memory Bank
  • Register
  • Log in
  • Specialisms

HOT DOGS

MetadataFramesRelated records
Metadata

WORK ID: YFA 5633 (Master Record)

TitleYearDate
HOT DOGS1970 1970-01-01
Details Original Format: 16mm
Colour: Colour
Sound: Sound
Duration: 10 mins 0 secs

Subject: Sport
Rural Life



Summary
Entertaining short film which documents a day’s whippet racing at Bingley, near Bradford. A commentary in a strong Yorkshire accent explains the particulars of the sport and the local area.
Description
Entertaining short film which documents a day’s whippet racing at Bingley, near Bradford. A commentary in a strong Yorkshire accent explains the particulars of the sport and the local area. Title – ‘Hot Dogs’ by J. Eric Hall The film opens with a whippet racing track being marked out in a field at Beckfoot, Bingley, with the commentary noting that these races happen every Sunday at 10am. A sign reads “Wippet racing – All dogs on lead – By order”. A dog with a rosette on its collar is held...
Entertaining short film which documents a day’s whippet racing at Bingley, near Bradford. A commentary in a strong Yorkshire accent explains the particulars of the sport and the local area. Title – ‘Hot Dogs’ by J. Eric Hall The film opens with a whippet racing track being marked out in a field at Beckfoot, Bingley, with the commentary noting that these races happen every Sunday at 10am. A sign reads “Wippet racing – All dogs on lead – By order”. A dog with a rosette on its collar is held on a lead. Men unload equipment for the races from a truck. The track is marked out using rope and metal stakes, and the starting traps are put in place. In the yard of the Brown Cow, one of Bingley’s oldest pubs, groups of men stand with numerous racing dogs on leads. The dogs are weighed and the results noted down, as the commentary explains that dogs are handicapped both on weight and previous victories. Meat pies, sandwiches, tea and beer are offered from a trestle table. A young man in a winter coat holds a small puppy in one hand. At the track, people arrive with their dogs and two men carry a large chalkboard to display the details of each race. Final preparations are made to the track, including setting up the lure which the dogs will chase. A man waves a white flag to start a race as another pulls to cords which open the starting traps. From the far end of the track a man winds in the lure and the dogs race after it. A cardboard box full of metal muzzles is seen, and the commentary explains that these are to prevent the whippets fighting. One is fitted to a smaller dog. The rosettes for the prize winners are seen followed by a young man wearing one. Further races are viewed from the end of the track, followed by dogs being weighed. The start of one race is seen in slow motion. A man holds a medal up for the camera, which reads ‘Aire Valley Whippet Racing Club’. The commentary notes that “there were some champion dogs at this meeting. Title –The End
Context
Shipley amateur cine filmmaker Eric Hall reveals once again his knack of capturing perfectly a typical local custom as practiced in 1968.  The film is worth watching just for Eric’s wry commentary, in his broadest Yorkshire accent, but it also wonderfully shows behind the scenes at a day’s whippet racing in West Yorkshire.  Another interesting facet of the film is that it was made when the whippet community divided over racing pedigree or non-pedigree dogs.    Eric Hall had been making films...
Shipley amateur cine filmmaker Eric Hall reveals once again his knack of capturing perfectly a typical local custom as practiced in 1968.  The film is worth watching just for Eric’s wry commentary, in his broadest Yorkshire accent, but it also wonderfully shows behind the scenes at a day’s whippet racing in West Yorkshire.  Another interesting facet of the film is that it was made when the whippet community divided over racing pedigree or non-pedigree dogs.
  
Eric Hall had been making films documenting the local customs, people and places of Yorkshire since 1929. He was at one-time Chairman of the North East Region of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers and President of Bradford Cine Circle.  Four years earlier than this one he made another excellent award winning film about the declining game of Knur and Spell, ‘Ower Bit Bog Oil’.  Whippet racing is still alive and well and appears to have changed little in the intervening years.  The British Whippet Racing Association was formed in 1967, but because it wouldn’t agree just to race pedigree dogs – some had been interbred with the larger greyhounds – the Whippet Club Racing Association was formed in 1968.

 
Frames
Related records
Footer logo

  • info@yfanefa.com
  • Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter

Follow us:

  • Contact us
  • Yorkshire Film Archive is a charity registered in England and Wales (1093468) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (04480153)

Copyright © 2025 Imagen Ltd.