Archive footage - Dulwich Hamlet v Nigerian FA XI, 1949

[EM74]

I thought people might be interested in some rare footage of a match played in 1949 between Dulwich Hamlet and a Nigerian FA XI (most of whom played without boots) at the old stadium on Champion Hill in front of 18,000 fans.

This is from the Colonial Film website which describes itself as holding detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online. Apparently you can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword. Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes written by an academic research team.

This film clip contains excellent footage of Nigeria's games at Marine FC near Liverpool, & the one at Champion Hill, with the majority of the ten minute clip being focussed on the latter.

http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/1444

To find out more of this amazing tour (including which local venue hosted the teams' after-match dinner), there is also a section on the excellent Hamlet Historian blog on the following link

http://www.thehamlethistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2010_06_01_archive.html

All told a great reminder of the club's heyday - 1949 being the last time Dulwich Hamlet were Ishthmian League Champions! - and the post war South London.

[Sue]

I have not the least interest in football usually, but that's really interesting, thanks :)

[steveo]

18,000 crowd. Those were the days

[lpool]

Wow great find. I grew up watching Marine.

[brezzo]

Great story, many thanks for linking it

[markymarket]

Hello. Yep great history. My great uncle bert coleman actually played for dulwich hamlets as goal keeper and was one of the last amateurs to be capped by ENgland as a full international... crowds of 20,000 we the norm. What great days they must have been

Guy coleman