My Christmas presents ! IMHO here are the most amazing and moving rugby videos around... three early rugby games - 1901 ! - recently discovered and restored by the British Film Institute (BFI) ... and nicely shared on YouTube for the pleasure of all rugby memorabilia fans ! (see below for more details on the "Mitchell & Kenyon Collection")
I will not comment these videos more than needed : they all come with a quality and self-explanatory commentary... and bring a true experience of rugby in Edwardian times, both on the field and in the stadiums... I love that !
Above are "magnifiscient animated pictures" (sic) from Hunslet v Leeds (February 16th, 1901), feat. Albert Goldthorpe (and here...) and brothers... below is Salford v Batley (November 2nd, 1901) feat. Jimmy Lomas scoring a try...
These videos show Northern Union teams (like most of my favorite Baines cards above...). So, it's basically Rugby League (as N.U. will be renamed in 1923)... playing with 15 players !
Actually, these games are played under 1899 N.U. rules... whereas the number of players in a team will be decreased to 13 later in 1906. Another interesting technical point under these rules is that every tackle is immediately followed by a scrum (fairly wild scrums, indeed !).
The video below - Oldham v Swinton (January 12th, 1901) - enters into these kind of technicalities... enjoy!
A few words about the Mitchell & Kenyon collection :
For around seventy years, 800 rolls of early nitrate film sat in sealed barrels in the basement of a shop.
Now miraculously rediscovered and restored, the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection is an amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.
It is the most exciting film discovery of recent times and promises to radically transform British film history.
All sports movies (football, rugby, cricket, etc...) have been gathered by the British Film Institute in a DVD called "Edwardian Sports" on sale here.
Again, I warmly thank this institution for sharing this memorabilia !
There's also some geek stuff : the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection on Google Earth ! (just click on this .kmz file if you have Google Earth installed - otherwise download Google Earth here before) .... Then fly over Edwardian England... Magic !
Last, but not least... I've borrowed the small Swinton Baines cards from John / ovalballs.com . Thank you Master!
Merci ! bravo ! un vrai miracle !!
Posted by: Pascalou | 23/12/2009 at 17:59
...he's thrown up some clips from the turn of the century. Not this century, last century. 1901. They were recently restored by the British Film Institute and uploaded to YouTube...
Posted by: Naly D | 23/12/2009 at 20:30
Thank you for the comment Frederic!
Yep I saw that postcard, but I liked the Kitten one much more :)
I've been popping in and out of your site since April, that's how long it's taken me to be able to write about you! I also use those awesome cigarette cards you posted from South Africa as the background for my Twitter!
Joyeux Noel [Forgive me if I got that wrong, I don't speak French!] to all of you in France as well. Keep up the great work!
Posted by: Naly D | 24/12/2009 at 02:19
Tout simplement magique!
Posted by: pierrot la tombal | 24/12/2009 at 10:44
@pierrot @pascalou : on est d'accord !
@Naly_D cool twitter background ! (but desktop and mobile twitter client dont show it... )
Posted by: Frederic | 24/12/2009 at 10:50
bellissime! Grazie BFI e RugbyPioneers
Posted by: Dick Dastardly | 25/12/2009 at 12:11
Effectivement, Frédéric, un bocado Denoel. Merci. J'adore la musique, très satie, du premier film...
Posted by: comme fou | 26/12/2009 at 22:37
Mince, j'aurais pu jouer 2ème latte à l'époque ! :-)
Magnifique découverte qui est par là même sauvée des ravages du temps.
Bravo !
Posted by: Pierre-Olivier Carles | 28/12/2009 at 18:27
Great ! Fantastique ta machine a remonter le temps ! Ca fait vibrer ma fibre documentaire ! J'adore les melees/mauls interminables facon 80's (1980's), un monde magique, sans rucks !
Posted by: sylvain | 30/12/2009 at 07:54
Prego !
;-)
Posted by: Frederic | 30/12/2009 at 23:59
c'est vrai, je n'y avais pas songé... pourtant j'aime beaucoup Satie... (
Posted by: Frederic | 31/12/2009 at 00:00
t'es trop costaud, même en 3/4, pour ces maillots... recalé !
Posted by: Frederic | 31/12/2009 at 00:01
d'ailleurs où sont les cameramen français ? ne sont-ils pas censés avoir inventé le cinéma pendant que nos gaziers couraient la pelouse.. ?
Posted by: Frederic | 31/12/2009 at 00:03