Made by George Cummin, this is a compilation of miscellaneous amateur and commercial footage, which includes an outing to Warkworth, Northumberland, with the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA), of which he was a member, and holiday footage of Devon featuring his wife, Norah Cummin, and friends. Footage of professional and women’s cricket matches are also included. The professional games featured may document the West Indian cricket team’s tour matches in...

Made by George Cummin, this is a compilation of miscellaneous amateur and commercial footage, which includes an outing to Warkworth, Northumberland, with the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA), of which he was a member, and holiday footage of Devon featuring his wife, Norah Cummin, and friends. Footage of professional and women’s cricket matches are also included. The professional games featured may document the West Indian cricket team’s tour matches in England in 1950. [Reel 1] [The first titles appear upside down.] Credit: GC Pictures Present Title: Innings & Outings The clock on the Church of St Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne, reads 10:30 in the morning. A group of Newcastle ACA members, friends and family are waiting to board a coach to the Northumbrian coast. Next, the ACA group of trippers are sitting amongst sand dunes at Warkworth, including George and Norah Cummin. A toddler in a swimsuit is playing with a baby in its pram. The mother sits with the toddler. Various shots of the group in the dunes follow. The beach is quite busy. Slow motion footage of cricket played on the beach follows, along with some rather poor attempts to hit a ball with rackets. Some children surround a kayak, whilst others play in the sea. George Cummin and a friend carry a bottle and tin can back up the beach. A boy is paddling the kayak into the waves. George Cummin and other ACA members sunbathe in the dunes. A portly, suntanned man dries himself off. A line of concrete sea defences can be seen further up the beach. George Cummin greets a man who has just been for a swim. A mother wipes a toddler’s nose. The day trippers from Newcastle ACA next visit Warkworth village and general views follow. Warkworth Castle is signposted. People sightsee around the castle. A man is filming with a cine camera from the battlements. Overhead view of the pond beside the castle. A cricket match is in progress in Warkworth. [The next film sequence is reversed.] This sequence may consist of film offcuts of the Newcastle ACA production ‘Flowers for Peter’. A boat is preparing to sail on the River Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne. Travelling shot of the boat at the mouth of the Ouseburn as it enters the River Tyne. A boy is in the boat. He fixes a rope on the boat as it sails towards the Tyne Bridge. Various shots along the Tyne follow. The scene shifts to children playing on a swing boat, then cuts back to preparations of a boat on the Ouseburn. The following footage may document the West Indian cricket team’s tour matches in England in 1950. Cricket teams walk out onto a pitch, both West Indian and white players in the opposing team. Cricket action follows, although the play is quite distant. Norah Cummin takes a swing with a golf club. Panoramic shot of Newcastle Quayside, Norah beside the river. [The next footage is out of focus.] Overhead shot of people strolling on a sea front promenade, perhaps Whitley Bay. General view of cliffs. Next, there’s a brief tracking shot from a boat on a river, followed by a boat trip and view of cliffs. Further footage of the West Indian cricket team follows. The stands at a cricket ground are packed. The teams walk out. The location may be the Oval, Leeds. Players emerge from a pavilion. Some of the cricket players then wander around marquees at the cricket ground. More cricket match footage follows, possibly at a different location. There are shots of the crowd, and of the West Indian players walking out. Next, there are lots of children out on the cricket ground and people taking photographs. Match action follows. [Reel 2] This sequence of holiday footage in Devon opens with general views of a road into a Devon town, cars passing the Oldenburg Hotel on a smaller street, and a bay and nearly empty beach. Norah walks up a cliff path and looks out over a bay. Norah sits on a deckchair, reading. Two of Norah and George’s friends are also on deckchairs at a beach. Boats are sailing in the bay. Norah steps gingerly over a stony beach down to the sea for a paddle. Norah and the two friends paddle in the sea. The man walks painfully back over the stony beach, his trousers rolled up. People hop into a ferry, a sign on the boat’s mast for ‘Torquay’. Travelling shot from the boat of Torquay. People are seated on a miniature train. The next shots are of a peacock and a koala bear. (?) The miniature train runs on a track through a park. A few people board a ferry boat. Jean and friends look out from the deck. Portrait shot of George Cummin on the boat, wearing a knotted hankie on his head and a cricket jumper. Norah and her friend look out at the picturesque Devon coastline. Brief shot of a navy boat at Torquay. Group portrait of Norah and friends on the deck of the ferry. General view of the ‘Western Lady’ ferry at Brixham. More travelling shots on the sea trip follow from the ferry, which include passengers in shot. A short, out of focus sequence follows of the Hoppings fairground on the Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, night and day. Women cricket teams leave the pavilion at a sports ground. Match action follows (quite distant). After the interval, the players again walk from the club house onto the pitch. Match action follows, people watching at the edges of the ground. A score board records the runs and wickets. The players leave the pitch after the match. Norah and a friend walk beside a rocky river. General view of a father and two small children beside the river. A brief scene in a park follows. A short travelogue of London follows with locations filmed including the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Thames, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square, the Old Bailey, and shots of the horse guards. The film appears to have been made during a London smog. A brief tinted sequence of the neon lights on Piccadilly Circus closes this sequence. The next sequence consists of footage of production on the Newcastle ACA film ‘The Northumbrian Custom of First-Footing’, with film crew on set. Various general views of Whitby follow, including the harbour, River Esk, men working on fishing boats at low tide, the beach, Norah Cummin around Whitby, a statue of Captain Cook on Whitby’s West Cliff, Pannett Park with the ruins of Whitby Abbey on the East Cliff in the background. The final footage in the compilation is a British Pathé newsreel of the 1951 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium.