England 1-0 Scotland (lost footage of Schools' International football match; 1952)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
England1-0scotlandschoolsinternational1.jpg

Programme for the match.

Status: Lost

On April 5th, 1952, England hosted Scotland for a Schools' International football match at the Empire Stadium. The match has television significance, as it was the first football match to be televised in Scotland.

Background

On March 14th, 1952, the BBC had broken new ground when it officially opened its Television Service in Scotland.[1] Beforehand, no one in the country could view the matches the BBC televised from 1937 to early 1952. Among notable examples includes the first televised international between England and Scotland on 9th April 1938,[2] as well as Walthamstow Avenue vs Queen's Park on 26th March 1951, the latter club being the first Scottish club to have a match be televised.[3]

Hence, the annual Schools' International match, its third running after first being held in 1950,[4] may well be the first football game that was televised in Scotland.[5][6] Notably, the BBC decided to provide live coverage of the game's second half instead of the England-Scotland senior sides match that occurred on the same day, merely providing a telerecording of the latter.[7][5][6] This may have been because the senior match was held at Hampden Park, Glasgow, with the BBC not electing to televise any matches from Scotland until the Scottish Universities-English Universities match on 20th December that same year.[8]

Having occurred on 5th April, it commenced prior to the Arsenal-Hibernian match on 22nd October, which was the first match televised in Scotland to feature a professional Scottish club.[9] Commentary was provided by Jimmy Jewell and Bill Stevenson.[7] The match itself commenced in front of 80,312, with the hosts being captained by a young Duncan Edwards.[4] England would ultimately win the match 1-0.[7]

Availability

The earliest BBC telerecording of a football match was a few minutes of England's game against Italy on 30th November 1949.[10] It is unknown whether the Schools' International game was subject to the same treatment or was televised live without any recording, as telerecordings seldom occurred until videotape was perfected in the late-1950s.[11] As of the present day, no footage of the match is currently publicly available. Issue 1,481 of Radio Times helped to document the broadcast.[5][6]

Gallery

Image

See Also

Association Football/Soccer Media

Early BBC Sports Television

Early BBC Television

Early Sports Television Media

References