Soldiers Sports Meeting (1915)

Location of events unknown. Soldiers’ sports meeting; World War One. Fun sports day: wacky contests, obstacle course, steeplechase and other silly sports. Opens with a contest involving horses; the soldiers run next to their horses, holding onto the reigns. They race to a row of chairs in the middle of a field and sit on one (like musical chairs but with horses). Next is obstacle race: soldiers flip through hanging rings, crawl under a tarp on the ground (one man stops to tie shoelace) and through pipes laid out on the ground. C/U of man eating something, pan to others sitting on the ground eating. Suddenly they all get up and go tearing off! Cricket game between soldiers and women: shot of man in foreground batting with woman wicket keeper behind him. Other women are fielding, all wearing long skirts which is quite a handicap! The wicket keeper throws a few times - she seems to be pretty good at pitching. Could be seen as sign of women’s wartime liberation. Modified WPA record. F