BFI

Originally filmed using the short-lived 68mm process, this was one of a number of films made by William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson during a trip to Worthing (just along the South Coast from Brighton and Hove, already well established as centres of pioneering film activity thanks to the efforts of Esmé Collings, G.A. Smith and James Williamson).

It is hard to tell whether the fully-clothed spectator who inadvertently joins the game halfway through did so of his own volition or as a result of being pushed (though the fact that he dives rather than falls suggests the former), and impossible to tell whether Dickson planned this in advance, but it adds an element of drama and unpredictability to what would otherwise be a routine actuality short.

Michael Brooke

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