Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 2653 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| THE NORTHERN CRICKET SOCIETY BOXING DAY MATCH ALWOODLEY | 1953 | 1953-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 13 mins 36 secs Subject: Sport |
| Summary This film is a record of the Northern Cricket Society's annual Boxing Day match held at Bramhope as well as another game which is played in the snow. The film includes good shots of a very unusual event. Yorkshire Cricketing stars include: Wilf Barber, Yorkshire's opening batsman, Don Wilson, Head coach for the MCC and spin bowler, Arthur Wood, Wicket Keeper and Brian Close. |
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Description
This film is a record of the Northern Cricket Society's annual Boxing Day match held at Bramhope as well as another game which is played in the snow. The film includes good shots of a very unusual event. Yorkshire Cricketing stars include: Wilf Barber, Yorkshire's opening batsman, Don Wilson, Head coach for the MCC and spin bowler, Arthur Wood, Wicket Keeper and Brian Close.
The film opens with shots of the memorabilia in cases and hanging on the walls at the cricket club. These...
This film is a record of the Northern Cricket Society's annual Boxing Day match held at Bramhope as well as another game which is played in the snow. The film includes good shots of a very unusual event. Yorkshire Cricketing stars include: Wilf Barber, Yorkshire's opening batsman, Don Wilson, Head coach for the MCC and spin bowler, Arthur Wood, Wicket Keeper and Brian Close.
The film opens with shots of the memorabilia in cases and hanging on the walls at the cricket club. These include photographs, paintings, drawings, engraved cricket bats, Ashes trophies, and the Cameric Cigarette Card Club.
Title - Annual Boxing Day Cricket 1953
Most of the footage shot in this film is taken from behind or near the bowler, very close to the action. Occasionally, depending on the angle, parked cars can be seen in the background, while most of the field is surrounded by countryside. Batters make their way in and out, and there is extensive footage of different members of the team taking their turn at bat. Spectators are gathered together in the nearby pavilion, all dressed in long winter coats, and some huddled together. Intercut with scenes of the cricket game are shots of the scoreboard. They game takes place on what appears to be a cold, grey day. After half time, the players come out of the club house. Each teams stops to pose for a photograph in front of the spectators. The teams then make their way back onto the field. One of the men quickly moves an open bottle of ale away from the wicket (stumps). The players begin another round of innings, and the last shot is of the scoreboard which reads 34 116.
Later, the players and their wives attend a dinner. A man at the head of the table makes a brief toast, and the cameraman focuses on different men and women seated at the long tables. They appear to be having a good time, smiling for the camera when it passes. Many of the men and women are smoking at the table.
The last scene of the film features a cricket game which is played in the snow. Before play begins, two men clear the space between where the batter stands and from where the bowler throws. The players come back and forth, on and off the field, smiling at the camera as they do so. Most of the footage is taken close to the action as the players attempt to bat. The team also has a group of spectators which watch from the nearby pavilion.
Context
This is one of three films of the Northern Cricket Society in the possession of the YFA; the others also feature Boxing Day matches, for 1948 and 1952. The Society was formed in 1948. Their website suggests that it was formed as an offshoot of the Cricket Society, which was founded in November 1945 at Great Scotland Yard, London, because this was too far away for many northern members to reach. This may actually refer to Yorkshire County Cricket Club, of which the Society is a part. Other...
This is one of three films of the Northern Cricket Society in the possession of the YFA; the others also feature Boxing Day matches, for 1948 and 1952. The Society was formed in 1948. Their website suggests that it was formed as an offshoot of the Cricket Society, which was founded in November 1945 at Great Scotland Yard, London, because this was too far away for many northern members to reach. This may actually refer to Yorkshire County Cricket Club, of which the Society is a part. Other affiliated societies include Wombwell Cricket Lovers' Society, founded in 1951, Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society, founded in 1960, and the East Riding Cricket Society, founded in 1965. More recently, the Pennine Cricket Society has just been founded in Huddersfield.
The film is unusual in that the camera gets fairly close to the action on pitch, with Brian Close almost hitting the cameraman with an off drive. (There appears to be two separate matches, one in snow, suggesting that this might be more than one Boxing Day match). One of their other films also has a fascinating film of the Indian touring team of 1952 when they were invited to a dinner at the Queens Hotel in Leeds in June 1952. The speaker for the evening was the actor Trevor Howard, and among those in attendance were Eric Bedser and Vijay Manjrekar, who got 133 in the first innings of the first test of the series at Headingley – although bowled out by Fred Trueman for a duck in the second innings the day following this dinner (Trueman took 4 wickets in just 9 overs: did he put something in the soup?). Also there was Bill Bowes the ex-Yorkshire and England bowler, who became a journalist with the Yorkshire Post and writer for Wisden. Bill made a series of remarkable, and unique, films of the three ashes tours of Australia in the 1950s, which are held at the YFA. Among those who have been identified playing in this match are Arthur Wood, possibly trudging off having been, seemingly, bowled out, and former Yorkshire opening batsman, Wilf Barber. It may be Wilf, again trudging off, this time seemingly stumped. Hopefully someone, having watched this, might be able to identify exactly who is who – doubtless all Yorkshiremen, although one Geoffrey Keighley, born in France, was playing for Yorkshire until 1951 (possibly the first overseas born player to do so, although apparently this wasn’t known when he started). One cricketer who is unmistakable is a young Brian Close, who walks to the wicket in the snow towards the end (he also appears in the two other Boxing Day matches). With his receding hairline he doesn’t look that much different from when he played his last test match for England against the great West Indies side of 1976. He is still the youngest ever to play Test cricket for England when, at the age of 18, he was selected to play against New Zealand in July 1949. Although regarded as one of the greatest all-round English cricketers ever (and toughest), he had a controversial career both as a cricketer and as chairman of Yorkshire's cricket subcommittee, when he often feuded with Geoff Boycott. As a cricketer he was criticised for touring the racist countries of Rhodesia and South Africa in the 1970s. He was also sacked by Yorkshire in 1970, for reasons that are also controversial. It might have been something of a risk for Brian Close to be turning out in the snow, and presumably very slippery conditions, as earlier in the year he sustained a serious knee injury which restricted him to only playing one match all that season, and having to give up playing football for Bradford City – the previous year he luckily escaped a possible career with Arsenal when he was sacked for turning up late! Boxing Day has traditionally been a day of sports, especially in the first two decades after the war: this has been somewhat eclipsed by shopping in more recent years. These Boxing Day cricket matches have been played every year since, with the proceeds going to charity. Today the favoured charity is St Gemma's Hospice in Leeds – see the opening of their new wing by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1982, A Vision Fulfilled. The games go ahead whatever the weather – rather like the Sheffield Spartan Swimmers of a decade earlier (in Australia Boxing Day is usually the first day of a Test match). Veteran member Harry Jackson, who organised the Boxing Day matches, speaking on the TV programme The Way We Were, states that the ball would sometimes get lost in the snow. It might look a bit too cold to watch and play cricket, but anyone who has gone over Headingley in recent summers might not notice much difference! References Martin Chandler, Bill Bowes - The Elland Express John Ward, A profile of Brian Close |
