1901 Film
Hunslet v Leeds
On February 16th 1901 the Hunslet v Leeds match was filmed by the Blackburn based company Mitchell & Kenyon. It was one of the earliest games of rugby league ever to have been recorded in this way. Hunslet won the game by 16 points to nil. In his efforts to follow the play and the players the "motion photographer" was allowed on to the field (what will Sky think of next), much to the annoyance of the players. The film was shown at the coliseum in Leeds by an exhibitor called Ralph Pringle and it was reported that Albert Goldthorpe attended 4 showings.
As you can see from the Youtube video this film still exists. It was restored, along with around 800 others, in a joint project involving the British Film Institute and the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. In January 2005 an extract from this film was shown on the BBC tv programme "The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon". The short films of 14 Northern Union matches have been shown at various venues throughout the country.
