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A documentary film about Featherstone Rovers


marklaspalmas

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I was recently contacted by Dr. Robert Light from Huddersfield University who is working with Alberto Segre and Kevin Williams, who themselves are making a documentary film about Featherstone Rovers. They have been in contact with various people at the club and are now appealing for help from fans.

They’re particularly interested in any video, home movie footage or photos relating to Rovers during the late 1970s and 1980s, especially things around the time of the 1983 cup run, the Wembley final and the miners’ strike the following year. Of course there is film of matches etc. but they’re more interested in personal/family material, trips to matches - Wembley in particular - and other events, to show what the Cup run and Rovers in general meant to people in the community during this difficult period.

This is their outline of the film:

 

"Earth, wind and fire" is a documentary that traces the parallel development of Rugby League and the mining industry, focusing on the period from the 70s, through to the closure of local pits and the demise of deep-mined coal in the United Kingdom. Through the lives of miners and players, and centring on the West Yorkshire mining town of Featherstone and its famous rugby team, the Rovers, the film will tell a story of the devotion, determination and survival against the odds of working people, their families, their community and their sport.
The documentary will use archive material to set the scene and build the story towards the surprise victory of Featherstone Rovers in the 1983 Challenge Cup final against the hot favourites, Hull, on what turned out to be the eve of the great miners' strike of 1984. The match will playout as the centrepiece of the film and provide the opportunity for Rovers players from that period and ex-Rovers players in the Hull cup final team to come together to watch, cheer and comment on the game.
Against the backdrop of archival footage, and drawing on the testimonies of some of the players, the film will look at how they and their community survived the hardships of the year-long strike and how their lives changed, often dramatically, in the post-strike period and up to the present day. It will also look at the challenges faced by a team, for nearly a hundred years known as "The Colliers", as the rich seam of local pit-honed young men on which its success had been built gradually disappeared. The film will draw to a close by showing how Featherstone Rovers has rebuilt itself after rejecting a merger with Castleford and Wakefield Trinity in the 90s, becoming a truly community-based club that, despite its glory days being far behind, remains the pride of the town.

 

If anybody has any suitable material they would like to share, then please get in touch, on here or PM and I will ensure you get in contact with the relevant people.

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