Bolton Football 1 (c.1900)

An Edwardian Bolton Wanderers football team file onto a threadbare pitch

The familiar rituals of modern televised football were apparently already in place over a century ago. Here, a Bolton team parade onto the pitch (presumably at the side's own Burndon Park stadium, though the shot is too tight to be sure), not for the benefit of the crowd, but for the camera. The players are clearly aware of the lens, and are visibly directed towards a marker on the pitch, but most of them carefully ignore it, just as they would today.

This tantalising fragment survives in significantly better condition than the two other Bolton Wanderers films found in the Mitchell & Kenyon collection, and the crisp focus means we get a good look at the players' faces. Are there any BWFC historians out there who'd like to have a go at identifying them?