NIPSY

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 6th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

Oct 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1THE BIG MEETING
2. 2COKING COAL
3. 3NIPSY

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: a traditional miners’ game in Hemingfield, South Yorkshire, in which a small hardwood billet is hit with a piece of wood - a player is allowed six attempts and the longest distance the billet is hit is the winner.
NCB Commentary - Here’s an unusual sport, the ancient South Yorkshire game of Nipsy.
A Nipsy is the little hardwood billet you see sitting on the brick. The game is to hit it as hard as possible - in the right direction - with a striker, also of one-piece wood. You’re allowed six tries in which to hit, but you’ve got to announce when you’re going to strike.
Stanley Gibson, one of the local experts, shows us how it ought to be done. There - he’s declared a strike. And away down the field goes the nipsy, with fieldsmen and markers in full cry. 120 to 150 yards is a good knock.
It’s a game whose popularity is reviving. Here’s a preview of the nipsy champion of 1975.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was filmed on the 7th June 1952. Commentary recorded 8 September 1952.

Keywords

Sport; Entertainment and leisure; Competitions; Mining

Locations

Yorkshire; England

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
Film User   Vol.8 No.87 January 1954, p32.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Camera

Bill Cheesman

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Director

John H. Shaw-Jones

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Camera

Ronald Bicker