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Cricket Match

The difficulties of the non-professional filming a cricket match are evident in this film, as the ball gets wacked hither and thither.

Amateur film 1971 3 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Yorkshire Film Archive

Overview

A glimpse of village cricket in the year that that other Yorkshireman, Geoffrey Boycott, was way ahead in the batting averages. Cawthorne Cricket Club, of the Huddersfield Central League, had a successful year in 1971, winning both the Allsop Cup and the League title. Here they can be seen, filmed by local amateur filmmaker Allan Broadhead, in action possibly against either nearby Shelley or Cumberworth.

Allan Broadhead started filming local events in the 1960s, and is still doing so, with very many recent films online. Cawthorne Cricket Club are still playing at the same ground, Cannon Hall Park, which was saved from disappearing in the early 1950s by the local the Miners’ Welfare, when the owner, the Spencer-Stanhope family, sold it off, having a new wicket laid and constructing a pavilion. It has recently undergone regeneration thanks largely to the efforts of Cawthorne singer-songwriter Kate Rusby (a distant relative of Allan Broadhead) whose family have a close association with the Club and who founded the nearby Underneath the Stars Festival which has raised funds for the Club.