1946 Ice Champions

Here's a beautiful little film that shows British skating as it looked in May of 1946 just before the first British Championships to be held after the end of WW2. Filmed at the Empire Pool, Wembley - an arena which played host to many national and international championhips before and after the war - we see a public dance session, stunt skaters and a 1940's style resurfacing before we see footage of some of the best British skaters of that era in practice before the championships began. Featured are three-time British medallist Marion Davies, Bridget Shirley Adams, Jill Hood-Linzee, 1947 British Champion, European bronze medallist and world silver medallist Daphne Walker and the great Cecilia Colledge, three-time European champion, 1937 world champion and at this time already a 5-time British champion from 1935-1939. She returned to skating after the war to win her 6th and final title here. In this film she demonstrates the layback spin that she invented. The skater featured at the end is Olive Robinson who won the British ladies professional title in the same year.

[@bevinboulder5039]

Thanks for this! The skating is lovely and we get to see how ice was resurfaced before the Zamboni was invented. Very interesting.

[@ddjr6673]

Oh my! This is incredible! Thank you!! A live orchestra!

[@lydwinaofschiedam2685]

The Zamboni machine was invented in 1949 and patented in 1953.

[@m.m.9684]

This is wonderful, I swear one of the female skaters, in the line up, looked like Queen Elizabeth II. I had to stop and go back to check it wasn't. Lovely.

[@floskate]

I'm guessing the third skater from the left as they pan along? That's Cecilia Colledge. I made a montage of her many years ago which shows her meeting The Queen in 1979 during the National Skating Association's (as was, it's now British Ice Skating) centenary exhibition at this very venue. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3Wvh4Bjfc-trcU

[@m.m.9684]

@@floskate Thank you, looking forward to your next post. And thank you for the link, she was really good, and lovely to see her with the Queen

[@susanbrint2887]

Lovely spin combinations!

[@Itstonytime77]

The catch foot and broken leg spins were great

[@marthalopez877]

Thank you so much for this. My skating coach was H Graham Sharp, men's 1939 world champion from Great Britain. Would you know anything about him? I know he was in a video playing tennis on the ice with 3 other. He was from Bournemouth and he father owned the Westover Ice Rink at one time.

[@floskate]

Oh I do but I would always love to know more. As his pupil you would know more than most about him as a person. In my collection is his second place trophy from the 1936 world championships, one of my most treasured possessions. Unfortunately there just isn't that much film of him skating that has surfaced yet but I live in hope that more will turn up over time. I do have an audio recording of a radio interview he gave prior to the 1979 NSA centenary, along with John Curry and Cecilia Colledge. He sounded so interesting!

[@barbarawilcox182]

To think that was Wembley Stadium!