Go Karting and other exciting sports from 1972

In a short film which packs quite a lot of excitement into it’s 2 1/2 minutes, this film from 1972 features Go Karting, Archery, a Tug of War and a strange game with a huge ball.

The film was in a new batch of films I bought a couple of weeks ago and was one of the first films on Vintage Home Movies which was filmed on standard 8, Agfa film rather than the much more popular Kodachrome.

As is usual when I first digitise one of the films for Vintage Home Movies I try to do some detective work to find out what the film is showing. Things have changed quite a lot since the film was shot in 1972, and many things which at the time would have been fairly easy to identify are sometimes not so easy to name now.

Go Karting Film

And this film is one which at least has one scene which fits that description. The film opens with pictures of a group of boys pushing a huge ball around a playing field. I tried various google queries to try to find out what this game could be but couldn’t find any reference to it. I did find a story in the Guardian which described a game involving pushing a large ball called ‘Push Ball’, but that was in the 1900s not 1972.

I’m hoping this is something a viewer of this post will be able to supply some information on.

After the odd, huge ball game, there is then some film of a pipe band playing in front of a large building, marching up and down the grass area in front of the building. This could indicate that the film was shot in Scotland I suppose, but pipe bands are seen all over the UK so this is by no means conclusive evidence of the location.

The next sport featured is the go karting, which makes up the majority of the rest of the film. After a bit of filming of practice runs, there is a race between six go karts until one finally takes the checkered flag.

The final two sections of the film show a tug of war and then an archery competition or possibly the archery targets were set up to allow people to have a go.

I suspect that this film probably shows a fete or possibly a school open day but it is a bit of a mystery to be honest – what is your opinion? Can you shed any light on if the game with the ball is actually pushball and where this film may have been shot? If you can, let me know in the comments form below.