A promotional film produced by Turners Film Productions for Vaux and Associated Breweries Limited looking back on a year of sporting success across Scotland and Northern England sponsored by Vaux. The film is introduced by the Chairman of the company, Mr Douglas Nicholson and features horse racing at Redcar, Catterick and Perthshire in Scotland, swimming, road racing, athletics, gymnastics, show jumping, clay pigeon shooting, pigeon racing, hound racing and cycling. The film also features the...

A promotional film produced by Turners Film Productions for Vaux and Associated Breweries Limited looking back on a year of sporting success across Scotland and Northern England sponsored by Vaux. The film is introduced by the Chairman of the company, Mr Douglas Nicholson and features horse racing at Redcar, Catterick and Perthshire in Scotland, swimming, road racing, athletics, gymnastics, show jumping, clay pigeon shooting, pigeon racing, hound racing and cycling. The film also features the Usher-Vaux Sports Awards Presentation Dinner at Edinburgh and a visit to Bede College at Durham where young people are given sports training with the assistance of Vaux. The film opens on a Vaux Gold Tankard and a montage of sporting events superimposed over a silhouette of the tankard. Title: Vaux Encourage Sport 1964 Title: Produced for Vaux and Associated Breweries Limited Sunderland Credit: Filmed by Turners Film Productions Newcastle upon Tyne England Credit: Production Bryan Nichols A.R.P.S. Photography Bryan Copplestone A.I.B.P. Peter Brown Credit: Commentary Peter Dimmick Title: Introduced by Mr Douglas Nicholson Chairman Vaux Breweries and Associates Limited Douglas Nicholson walks in the grounds of a large country house with his dogs. He speaks to camera introducing this 4th year of Sport in the North. He also comments how Usher-Vaux funds have supported the training of three Scottish athletes to Olympic stand all of whom were at the 1964 Olympic Games at Tokyo. The film changes to show Edinburgh Castle in the distance and the Caledonian Hotel nearby. Inside well dressed guests take part in the Usher-Vaux Sports Awards Presentation Dinner on the night of 24th January. BBC television cameras record Douglas Nicholson giving a speech from the top table. Olympic silver medallist swimmer Bobby McGregor comes forward to collect an award followed by British showjumper Anneli Drummond-Hay. Mr Nicholson presents the 1964 Usher-Vaux Sportswoman of the Year award to amateur tennis player Joyce Barclay. World champion racing driver Jim Clark is the presented with the Sportsman of the Year award. General views follow of the crowds at Redcar racecourse just before the start of the Vaux Gold Tankard race. Competing horses are paraded around the paddock including By Jupiter whose name is embossed on the blanket covering him. The Nicholson family stand chatting with a race official as the jockeys mount their rides. On the course general views follow of the race which is won by High Titans followed by Espresso. High Titan is lead back into the paddock followed by the Vaux Gold Tankard being presented by Mr Nicholson to Mr Noel Merliss(?) High Titans trainer. From a panoramic view over tennis courts and a lawn at Bede College beyond which we see Durham Cathedral, a series of directional signs are shown in a brief montage: ‘Vaux School of Sport’, ‘canoeing’, ‘basketball’, ‘gymnastics’ and finally ‘tennis’. The film portrays a variety of sporting activities (included in scholarships awarded to students); tennis practice, football practice, archery training, a girl doing somersaults with the aid of two gymnastic coaches, young people having canoeing lessons on the River Wear observed by a small assembled audience, and river swimming under the Elvet Bridge. Eighteen year old Sunderland swimmer Ralph Johnson wins, later becoming English long-distance swimming champion (with Peter Hatfield of Middlesbrough in 2nd place). Indoor lane swimming ensues at a municipal baths in which a tracking television cameraman captures the action on a dolly-rail along the length of the pool. Potential Olympic swimmers are seen in action, including the women’s race won by Jennifer Price in lane 5. A well-attended Usher-Vaux Brewery Gold Tankard race taking place at an unidentified Perthshire racecourse. Views of the course show spectators as well as the race which was won by Pluey(?) with the tankard being presented to the owner Mr J.G. Douglas. Beneath a high pub sign for ‘The Fairfield’, a starter in a beige coat fires a gun to begin the 20 mile Vaux Open Road Race in Stockton-on-Tees, in which sixty runners compete from ‘all over the north-east’. The commentary remarks that with the absence of John Anderson (Vaux sportsman of the year 1963,) Jim Alder of Morpeth Harriers is the strong favourite’. The participants set off down the street and are then depicted in a montage of shots tracking the span of the race through suburban estates, rural terrain. We then see the winner Jim Alder making the final stretch towards the finish line (with 11 dropping out due to adverse weather conditions). He is then filmed with his wife while smiling for the camera. At the Central Avenue Stadium in Billingham, with the famous 2000 capacity cantilever stand in the background, athletes run around the track competing in the Vaux Invitation Team Race, part of the first Billingham Games. Views of the race are followed by the presentation of the gold tankard to the winner, Jim Cook of Portsmouth Athletics Club. At Catterick racecourse in Yorkshire views of bookmakers and tic-tac men set the odds for the Vaux National Hunt Steeplechase. The horses are paraded around the paddock and one of the riders is identified as Paul Nicholson, son of Douglas Nicholson. He stands beside his family before climbing onto his father’s horse Sea Knight. Various views of the race follow which is won by horse Freddy. The horse is lead back to the paddock and the Vaux Gold Tankard is presented to Freddy’s owner Mr Tweedy. Female competitors make use of various pieces of equipment as well as a large mat take part in the Junior Women’s Gymnastics Championship taking place at the Red House Sports Hall in Sunderland. At the Royal Highland Show near Edinburgh Harvey Smith, Andrew Fielding and Ted Williams compete in show jumping each completing a round. On one of his rounds Harvey Smith on O’Malley knocks over a parallel bar. The event was won by Ted Williams on Carnival who is presented with the Vaux Gold Tankard by Mrs Nicholson. At Wynyard Park near Stockton competitors take part in the Vaux National Down-the-Line Clay Pigeon Shoot. Views show clay pigeons being fired into the air and lines of men shooting at them. Mr R.E. Bruce from Berwickshire wins the High Gun prize. The next section of the film depicts a pigeon racing event which begins with views of pigeons and their breeders preparing them for the flight to Beavais in France. Pigeon basket labels identify pigeons from Seaton Delaval and Alnwick are loaded onto a train. Accordion music plays over the commentary. In France an artist from the Versailles School of Art sketches the event including the birds in the baskets. A man cuts the seals on the baskets and the birds are released. A map shows the route of the race from Beauvais back to Great Britain. The owner of the winning bird, Mr Proctor of Felling-on-Tyne comes out of his loft and holds up his winning bird ‘Tough Guy’. General views show the exterior of the Seaburn Hotel in Sunderland. Inside the hotel a man stands looking at a painting of a pigeon race by the French artist seen previously displayed in the foyer. At Westmoorland and Kendal, the Vaux Champion Hound Training takes place in which we see many different views of bookmakers, spectators and owners before the race. The hounds are released followed by vies of dogs jumping over walls and running across fields on a ten mile trail. Owners wave the dogs down at the end on the course and the winner, Mr Wilson-Johnson of Kirkosald poses happily with the tankard as well as his winning hound. The International grand prix cycle race, over the Wolsingham circuit, County Durham, takes place over a 28 mile circuit, reaching the heights of the Bollyhope Common, in Teesdale. Riders include Peter Chisman and Billy Dobson amongst others. A tankard is presented to the winner by Charles King, President of the British Cycling Federation where the film ends. Title: Vaux Encourage Sports