Barmy Army robbed of irreplaceable documentary footage (December 22 1998)

December 22 1998

Barmy Army robbed of irreplaceable documentary footage

AFP

MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec 22 (AFP) - Members of the Barmy Army, the fun-loving fans who trail the English cricket team around the world, have lost irreplaceable documentary footage in a theft at their Melbourne hotel.

The footage and camera equipment worth an estimated 2,500 dollars (1,550 US) were in a rucksack stolen from a backpackers' hotel.

"Army" member Paul Burnham, 34, of Twickenham, London, said the video cassettes contained footage of Test matches and the army's party at an old prison in Adelaide, held to raise funds for charity.

"We want it to make a movie, documentary-type thing," he said. "We are asking if anyone has got it, if it can be left somewhere because it is no use to them, but we can't go back and play the Tests again."

He said about 50 members of the "army" had made the backpackers' hotel their headquarters during their stay in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test, the fourth in the Ashes series.

Police said the video camera and a camera went missing from the room between between late Sunday and early Monday. There was no sign of forced entry to the room.

"It was insured, but it is not the gear, it is the footage," Burnham said. "These things happen. That's just life, it can happen anywhere in the world."