Old Collegians Devon Tour 1938

Enjoy this barnstorming cricket tour around Devon with the Old Collegians - complete with pipes, stripey blazers and old Bertie's party trick

The Old Collegians Cricket Club's 1938 tour of Devon as captured by one of the players, A E Ford. Giving match statistics throughout we see play at Bryanston School, which is actually in Dorset, Exmouth - where Bertie balances a beer glass on his head, Torquay, where seabirds invade the pitch, Plymouth, where we see recently retired Australian cricketer, Bert Oldfield, signing autographs and Bovey Tracey, where after much playing, smoking and socialising the tour ends.

William Albert Stanley "Bert" Oldfield, who appears on this film, was an Australian cricketer who made his first class cricket debut in England in 1919. During the Third Test of the controversial 'Bodyline Series' of 1932-33, where the English team bowled fast balls directly at the Australian batsmen's bodies, Oldfield suffered a fractured skull after being hit on the head by a ball bowled by Harold Larwood. Oldfield recovered in time for the Fifth Test and played test cricket for another four years ending his career in 1937 - the year before the Old Collegians Tour depicted in this film.