London - Fair Play

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 19th Year

Issue

Issue No.

6

Date Released

Feb 1966

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1London - Fair Play
2. 2Glamorganshire - Challenge of Tomorrow
3. 3Northamptonshire - Steel Town

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Summary

NoS synopsis: A referee and mining employee, Doug Cutting, speaks about current football problems
NCB Commentary - Soccer - the biggest crowd attraction in Britain today.
But many people are questioning the integrity of the game. Television commentators - and the press - report what they see. And it’s not all good news.
Bot only players hit the headlines. The crowds and the lunatic fringe of the fans take their share of the blame too.
One man who can speak his mind on current soccer prospects is Doug Cutting, 34 year old league and cup referee and mining industry employee when he’s off the field.
Despite all the newpaper headlines, football is really not a dirty game. Games can get out of hand, we all know, but principally football is a game designed to give entertainment and above all a game to be played by men. How can be ugliness in certain matches be stamped out? One of the causes of rough play is attacks on the goal keeper. Here the goalkeeper has been charged unfairly, the onrushing forward has not charged him shoulder to shoulder but has caught him in the chest. As this is early in the game now is the time to stampl out violence before it has a chance to spread.
Spectators too tend to incite players to commit cilly fouls, thereby causing some of the ugle scenes on our grounds today.
This player is moving fast down the middle of the pitch; he pushes the ball through but his own momentum causes him to collide with a defender and he is hurt. There is no foul here and play continues until the ball ceases to be in play. Then the injured player is attended to. Many referees use the trick of cracking a joke in order to ease any tension that may have been caused when a player is hurt - thereby keeping bad feeling out of a game.
Perhaps if more players were to learn and abide by all the 17 laws of the game football would be a better sport for us all.
In World Cup year, lets hope that Doug Cutting’s views will prevail.

Keywords

Mining; Football

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Films on Coal Catalogue   1969, p.51
Film User   Vol.20 No.231 January 1966, p41.
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit