This is a brief film about an exercise on creating an eighteenth-century cricket match in the 1930s. It was held at the historic Vine ground with the then Duke of Dorset present, whose ancestor had donated the ground to the club in 1773.
It was a very creditable effort, but I think, more an exercise in fancy dress than an attempt to recapture the past. Batsmen were using techniques they had learned in the twentieth century, with a great deal of emphasis on legside play, and are quite different to anything that may have been seen in the Eighteenth Century. The skills of underarm bowling have been lost and are probably beyond recapture. The field itself, with a manicured square, is unlike anything that would have been seen two hundred years before; similarly the outfield. A worthy effort, but just a fun day.
