29 January 2009
Eton Wall Game (1921)
My research at the BFI National Archives has uncovered footage of the Eton Wall Game from 1921. Played at Eton College every St. Andrew's Day. Note the slim physiques, proper haircuts (minus facial hair), and bone structure of the young chaps at play. I can imagine some of Evelyn Waugh's contemporaries amongst the spectators.
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5 comments:
This is actually priceless. The shot of the young lads at the end in their coats and hats was amazing. Dress codes are a great legacy of this era. I'm grateful that my school had a code. We pushed it, but we had to push within the code.
Looks a bit like "Buck-Buck" (a game played in urban Philadelphia by the kids in Fat Albert's cartoon gang). Have a great Left Coast weekend!
Great bit of footage that. Looks a little like murder ball that I used to play as a child but sadly in standard 1970's issue shorts and addias t-shirts. Nothing as stylish as those outfits. Nice blog, will be back for more.
The Eton Wall Game is actually a very old game and can be traced to th origins of Rugby. Here's what wikipedia has to say about it all - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_Wall_Game
The Eton Wall Game is actually a very very old sport that can be traced back to being the origins of the gmae of Rugby - back then Soccer and Rugby were one sport - some believed in full tackles and handling of the ball, others wanted to play solely with the feet. The two games were actually officially founded on the same day when a council of clubs met and decided to amicably split into two separate unions/codes.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Eton Wall Game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_Wall_Game
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