Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 978 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| THE GREAT SPORTING EPIC: THE NETBALL MATCH OF THE CENTURY | 1930s | 1930-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: Standard 8 Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 4 mins Subject: ENTERTAINMENT / LEISURE SPORT WORKING LIFE |
| Summary This is a whimsical film about a netball match between men and women who worked in the architectural office at Sheffield Town Hall. |
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Description
This is a whimsical film about a netball match between men and women who worked in the architectural office at Sheffield Town Hall.
Title: ‘The Great Sporting Epic’ ‘The Netball Match of the Century’ ‘Kinman’s Cuties: Paralysing Patricio, Magnificent Margaret, Juicy Joan, Amorous Ann, Shimmering Sheila, Breathtaking Brenda, Irresistible Isobel.’
The film begins with some women sitting in an office typing. There is a photograph of Kenneth Moore in the background, knitting and reading a...
This is a whimsical film about a netball match between men and women who worked in the architectural office at Sheffield Town Hall.
Title: ‘The Great Sporting Epic’ ‘The Netball Match of the Century’ ‘Kinman’s Cuties: Paralysing Patricio, Magnificent Margaret, Juicy Joan, Amorous Ann, Shimmering Sheila, Breathtaking Brenda, Irresistible Isobel.’
The film begins with some women sitting in an office typing. There is a photograph of Kenneth Moore in the background, knitting and reading a magazine. Two pairs of legs can be seen: one man’s the other a woman’s, the latter going up onto tiptoe!
Intertitle: ‘Mundy’s Monsters. Warrior Wildgust. Badger Baldwin =Juvenile Joe. Monty Mead = Crushable Cox. Petrifying Pringle = Muscly Mung.’
A group of men are lined up in a field in silly costumes.
Intertitle: ‘The Match’
The women emerge from a changing room with a woman referee, and both teams run onto the field. The referee blows her whistle, and the two captains toss a coin to start. The netball match gets underway with a lot of larking about.
Intertitle: ‘Winning goal’. A man has climbed up the net pole, and he places the ball through it. The men are then shown all exhausted, and the film comes to an end.
Context
This is the earliest of four films held with YFA made by Colin William Ledger Windle, who was born in Sheffield in 1913. The other films include a training film for the St John Ambulance Service, made at Fox House, Sheffield during the Second World War; a family film of a holiday in the years immediately after the end of the War, also showing the architect’s office at Sheffield Town Hall; and the family together at Christmas in the late 1940s. Colin made other films which were collected by...
This is the earliest of four films held with YFA made by Colin William Ledger Windle, who was born in Sheffield in 1913. The other films include a training film for the St John Ambulance Service, made at Fox House, Sheffield during the Second World War; a family film of a holiday in the years immediately after the end of the War, also showing the architect’s office at Sheffield Town Hall; and the family together at Christmas in the late 1940s. Colin made other films which were collected by BBC Radio Sheffield to be deposited with YFA. Windle worked in the architectural office at Sheffield Town Hall, and this film perfectly captures a fun time had with some of his work colleagues. It isn’t known exactly when the film was made, so any help on this, or with the identification of the people in it, would be appreciated. Nor is it clear where the netball game takes place, although one suggestion is Graves Park in Sheffield. Colin was brought up at the Banner Cross Inn in Eccleshall where his mother was the landlady for 27 years. He studied architecture at Sheffield University (after changing for Quantity Surveying). He worked as an architect with the city Council, in offices overlooking the Peace Gardens, until his retirement in the 1970s. during his time the department was divided into four sections, and he became in charge of the Schools section (Housing and Municipal Buildings being two of the others). He was responsible for many schools, including the Maud Maxfield school for the deaf which recently closed. Colin was also one of the principle people who restored Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet in the 1970s and campaigned to save the Lyceum Theatre. In fact Colin performed here and produced in the theatre – he was renowned for his comedy, and his sense of humour shines through in this film. The Grade 1 listed Town Hall was opened on 21st May, 1897 by Queen Victoria, and further extended in 1923. It was in fact Sheffield’s fourth town hall. The impressive Town Hall often crops up in films from Sheffield – in particular in Sheffield at War (1941), where members of the Home Guard carry out exercises from on top of the 64 metres high tower, with the figure of Vulcan, the mythical God of Fire, on top. Despite its splendours, which can be viewed on guided tours, it is still a functioning building for the City Council. Although netball has always been a female sport, in fact it became so rather accidently. It originated out of basketball when this was invented by Canadian James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. It was immediately taken up by women, but a sports teacher in New Orleans, Clara Baer, misinterpreted the drawings and rules sent to her by Naismit, and ended up having zones and no dribbling (basketball doesn’t have no-go zones, and does have dribbling), and these mistakes led to different rules in 1899. Before then, it had already been played in England in 1895 at Madame Osterburg's College. It subsequently took off in England and across the British Commonwealth. Formal rules were established at the inaugural meeting of the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball, where it was also decided to hold World Championship tournaments every four years, beginning in Eastbourne, England, in 1963. Most of the work of the architect department moved out of the Town Hall many years ago. But the city Council has done a good job in regenerating the city, managing to look ahead whilst retaining much of its original character. Much of the thanks for that goes to the vision of Simon Ogden, Head of Development Services with Sheffield City Council. Some of the projects Simon has been involved with, the Peace Gardens, Millennium Square and Winter Gardens, were voted the UK’s ‘Great Place’ of the year at the annual Academy of Urbanism Awards in 2007. (with special thanks to Marilyn Windle) References Netball Online, History of Netball |
