MORE homely 1950s entertainment was provided by the Knowle Park Congregational Cricket Club’s annual pantomimes, for which the cricketers enlisted the motley help of the neighbouring public.
“The production”, as the Keighley News drama critic Juniper wittily described one of their offerings, “bore a distressingly large number of those faults where cricket and serious amateur theatricals part company”. He did, however, praise their sometimes “ingenious” humour.
Here, from The Magic Sandals in 1957, is a wrestling match between Walter Twigg as the Mannville Mauler and Harold Dewhirst as the Raglan Ripper. Walter Twigg was to become a prominent long-serving member of Keighley Playhouse, of which he was president when he died in 2000.
This posed photograph is by the late Allan Hargreaves of the Keighley News, who here demonstrates his mastery of the comical. He has played up Mr Twigg’s natural height, whilst making Mr Dewhirst appear smaller than he actually was.
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