Is the story true about the football commentator who blindly told about the match in foggy weather?

In social networks, you can find publications on how in 1940 the broadcast from the stadium in Edinburgh was completely invented-the commentator did not see what was happening on the field due to the fog. We checked the reliability of such messages.

Typically, events are described something like this: on January 1, 1940, the Edinburgh teams of Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian played, and the BBC broadcast on the radio. In conditions of war, commentators were forbidden to describe the weather at the venue of the match - the authorities were afraid that this information would fall to the Germans and bombing could begin. This instruction was followed by the derby Bob Kingsley, appointed to the Edinburgh derby, while the stadium was shrouded in a dense fog, because of which the commentator did not see what was happening on the field. Following the prohibition, Kingsley began to improvise and throughout the game invented the assimilation moments, violations of the rules and judicial decisions.

These events are described, for example, in materials on sites "Museum of Facts" And BFM.ruas well as in several large public In VKontakte dedicated to football. The authors of blogs on sites tell about an unusual match Sports.ru, Livejournal, "Yandex.Zen" And Pikabuas well as users Facebook and other social networks. At the same time, for example, the publication of Moscow 24 is significantly differs In details: according to the publication, the commentator was called Bob Crampsius, not Bob Kingsley, and the game itself was held at the end of December, and not at the very beginning of 1940.

On January 1, 1940, several publications in large British media are devoted to the Edinburgh derby. For example, The Guardian talked about that match twice - in 2009 And 2011 years. In both cases, these were collections of interesting facts: in the first case of football in general, in the second - about New Year's matches in the UK. The author of the 2011 note gives a number of interesting details. For example, Kingsley initially tried to organize a system of peculiar messengers from people who were near the field who could periodically rise to a commentary position and talk about what happened. Realizing that most of the 14,000 spectators see a little more than himself, Kingsley began to describe the match, inventing events on the go.

The Scotsman’s Scottish edition devoted more detailed texts. In the note 2001 reportedthat the chains of the messengers nevertheless brought to Kingsley scattered information about the main events of the match, but the most part of his commentary had a very mediated attitude towards the field. After 13 years The Scotsman Published Even more detailed material - it says that the commentator also focused on the cries of fans who came to the match (at least those who saw what was happening at the gate). He suggested that the exclamations signal the goals, and more loud - about the balls clogged with the owners of the field from Hibernian.

It is funny that The Scotsman published a note about the match and immediately after the game of January 1, 1940. The author of that text praised Hibernian players for the “advantage in the work team”, and their rivals for individual skill. This message also said nothing about a strong fog, the reporter limited himself to the wording of "the match was held in unusual conditions."

At the same time, on the BBC website, commentary improvisation is mentioned only once. At one time, readers were offered by e -mail to send questions based on interesting facts related to football, and the audience to answer them. Question about Bob Kingsley Send In the summer of 2003 a certain James Duz, and the answer Published The next day.

The emergence of such a question about the improvisational report in the BBC game at that time, apparently, is no coincidence. January 1, 2002 took place The premiere of radio pesh, Andrew Dalmeyer Playing a Blinder - "Fars of wartime based on real history." Author Reported The Telegraph, that when writing his text, focused on the story of Bob Kingsley. At the same time, Dalmeyer emphasized: “There is no confidence in how many spectators were on the game, and even in which teams played in, because several players called for war at the last moment. There was no audio recording of the comment, so I had to imagine how it sounded. ”

We failed to find more strict confirmations that the described events of 1940 (for example, documents or evidence of that time), we failed. For some data, Bob Kingsley described his unusual commentary experience in autobiography I Saw Stars!published in 1947, but we could not find this book in the public domain. Dalmeier, in turn, Reported In an interview that I learned about this story from the article by the football historian Bob Craepmsi, however, we could not get acquainted with her full text.

Thus, several large British media tell the story of an improvisational commentary on a match in Edinburgh. Almost identical from a factual point of view, materials on this topic periodically have been published over the past two decades. If the foregoing had not fundamentally corresponded to the memories of eyewitnesses and other sources, refutations would have appeared during this time. Nevertheless, publications in the media and social networks are often accompanied by photography, Made After 14 years and has nothing to do with the match between Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian.

Although Kingsley, in his invented comment, probably presented the match rather brightly, boring game I was not And in reality. Judging by the official report, two minutes before the end of the first half, Hibernian led 3: 2, but the team left for a break with a lag in one goal. In the second half of the game, Heart of Midlothian strengthened the lead, bringing the score to 5: 3 in his favor, but by the 75th minute the rivals were equal to the number of heads. However, Hibernian could not hold a draw - five minutes before the end of the match, the ball was scored by Tommy Walker. The game ended with a score of 6: 5 in favor of Heart of Midlothian.

Most likely, the truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. The Scotsman. C.Lassic Match: Hibs V Hearts, New Year’s Day 1940
2. Imperial War Museums. 10 Facts ABOUT FOOTBall in the Second World War
3. ESPN. English Football During World War II Showed How Sport Canal and Unify During Times of Crisis
4. Is it true that the photo shows a goalkeeper forgotten during the match because of the fog?