was there. Oh how I miss Bradford Dukes and speedway it was part of my childhood I can still smell that unique smell of the tyres on the track and the taste of Bovril when it was cold in winter

League won this game apparently

This is golden footage. Three absolute giants of Tennis : Bill Tilden, Don Budge and Ellsworth Vines. The forerunners of today's other trinity: Rog Rafa Nole. I'm not sure which of these two generations reigns supreme in Tennis History... but both have definitely carried the sport to new unparalleled scintillating peaks. Tilden was THE mastermind who almost single handily re-created the game and the shots, he INVENTED modern tennis ; Don Budge was the original COMPLETE player, perfect execution without weaknesses and totally consistent ; and Elsworth Vines was a GENIUS, less consistent than the others but when playing at his best perhaps the greatest of all... Each one of them had tremendous skills and strengths, capable of beating each other. Very much like the Big 3 of our time.. 🎾 Respect !!

great record! thanks for sharing. is he don budge?

Frank Whitcombe is standing at the end on the left of the Welsh players at the team line up

The match shown is Tilden's loss to Stoefen at Bradford, June 17, 1939. Great footage, thanks for sharing!

According to the poster at the beginning, Warrington and Salford were also playing. Doesn't mention Wigan.

GREAT! Love the serving..thanks for uploading. Any more would be welcome

Wonderful stuff. I could watch hours of this look back into yesteryear.

"Apathy, scepticism, hostility and opposition kept RL out of the forces until the 1990's"...."A long campaign started by Damien Clayton in 1992 led to the recognition of the sport ". From the RAF's own site History of the RAFRL. "Until as recently as 2003 RMA Sandhurst refused to allow cadets to play RL".

Guess some people don't care to know their subject well enough to understand that the only time RL players could play a game of Union with Union players was during war time.

Thanks! More, more...fantastic stuff! Got any Suzanne?

Great footage .Nice to see them all in their traditional strips, no one running around in some bastardized pink number!

hahaahaha the car that was driving in half xDD

ya wanna be in my gang my gang my gang....

Superb footage. A few moments of joy before all the tragedy that was to follow.

Thanks for your interest, soclarc and thanks very much for the information re Ray Bowers in "Forgotten Victories". We'll definitely follow that one up. If we can unearth any more footage we'll share it with you.

odsalheritage: Greatly appreciate ANY footage of Tilden, make no mistake. Old enough to have seen in person Perry and Budge playing in their late tennis days, but missed Tilden, Vines, Lacoste, Cochet. Nabokov writes of Tilden's tennis: "The divine delicacy of absolute power." Ray Bowers in "Forgotten Victories" chronicles pro tennis from 20s to 40s. Odsal matches in there.

Hi Soclarc, thanks for your comments but the film is what we have. it seems as though the film maker was recording the 'event' including the crowd and stadium rather than coverage of the tennis match per se. The film is just what we have to share with you.

I think Tilden was around 46 years old. I wonder why we don't have more film of him in match play. It's good to have this Odsal coverage, but basically it's silly...there's little continuity, we don't need to scan the crowd when little actual tennis is shown, and the person filming can't know jack about tennis.

what a great bit of footage but needs to be titled rugby league v rugby union it will be easier to find.