Where was the cricket match in THE DEEP?

 

Cloche (Louis Gossett) and Treece (Robert Shaw) at the 1976 Bermuda Cup Cricket Match (Source Sony Pictures).

St. George's Cricket Club

1976 was a special year for the Bermuda Cup Match and The Deep was there to capture the action during the game's 75th Anniversary.

Cloche (Louis Gossett) and Treece (Robert Shaw) discussed raising the ampules from Goliath as they watched the Bermuda Cup Match at St. George's Cricket Club, 56 Wellington Slip Rd, St Georges GE 02, Bermuda. Most of the scene was filmed live amongst spectators at the real Bermuda Cup Match in 1976.

Much of The Deep was inspired by Bermuda's real underwater exploration history and there are discreet acknowledgments throughout the film. However, sometimes it's possible to read too much into a scene and assume there are Easter eggs that may just be random props with no deeper meaning. The Bermuda Cup Match scene is an example of what might contain Easter eggs which honour a 1961 experiment to search for Bermuda shipwrecks using a giant balloon.

Tucker's "candy-striped" and "calypso pink" Winzen balloon (Source True Adventure and Periscope Film).

Before reading on you should watch this 3 minute clip of the scene and then return to continue. 

In 1961 Don Schanche, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, visited Bermuda to sponsor Teddy Tucker's leadership of an underwater expedition.

(Source The Royal Gazette 24 July 1961 via Bermuda National Library)

Referring to the expedition marine archaeologist Robert Marx credited Tucker with pioneering the use of a helium balloon to search for shipwrecks. Inventor Otto Winzen donated a plastic balloon that Tucker described as "candy-striped like a peppermint ball" and which towed an observer 180ft high above a boat. 

Tucker's "candy-striped" Winzen balloon (Photo Saturday Evening Post)

The six week adventure included, Mendel Peterson, Peter Stackpole, Robert and Donald Canton (Edna Tucker's brothers), Edna Tucker, Major General Sir Julian Gascoigne, and astronaut Major Donald K 'Deke' Slayton. Peter Stackpole's photos from this adventure helped dress the 'Hamilton Library' scene earlier in the film.

Some of the participants were too heavy but Edna Tucker was light enough to stay airborne and in a 2004 interview Edna described the balloon, with its trailing wind streamer, as "calypso pink!"

"calypso pink!" (Source True Adventure and Periscope Film)

It was while using this balloon that the expedition discovered the wreck of the Virginia Merchant.

Fast forward 15 years and Romer Treece (Robert Shaw), a character Peter Benchley based largely on Teddy Tucker, is moving toward Henri Cloche (Louis Gossett) in the south west corner of the St. George's Cricket Ground.  If you watched the clip earlier did you notice the balloon fly past with its trailing streamer?

A balloon with red streamer flies up behind Robert Shaw "Go away will you" (Source Sony Pictures)

Notice the streamer isn't tied to the neck but has been attached to the side like the Winzen balloon.

 (Source Sony Pictures)

 (Source Sony Pictures and  True Adventure and Periscope Film)

Did you notice the massive candy-stripe in the breeze behind Louis Gossett? 

"Three days Treece ... three days"  (Source Sony Pictures)

"calypso pink!" (Source True Adventure and Periscope Film)

Still not convinced? What about the voice yelling out "calypso"? The Deep soundtrack included the song Calypso Disco by Beckett, from producer Peter Guber's own Casablanca Record and FilmWorks, and the song plays from the beginning of the scene. As Treece moves toward Cloche, and while the balloon rises, the song's chorus repeats:

"Calypso disco

Calypso disco"

Play the clip again or listen to Beckett's original recording below:

Easter eggs, which are hidden props intended to surprise the viewer, usually have no relationship with the storyline and rely upon the phenomenon of inattentional blindness (and inattentional deafness) to stay concealed. 

If these really were Easter eggs they were possibly recognised by an exclusive group whose gag has stayed well hidden for many decades. Explorer Robert Marx, who dived with Teddy Tucker on the wreck of the Capitana (1563), described Tucker as an "irrepressible practical joker" (Marx, 2016). 

The 75th anniversary of the Bermuda Cup Match was commemorated with the issue of an Official First Day Cover and stamp series.

Bermuda Cup Match 75th Anniversary Official First Day Cover, 16 August 1976 (Source Bermuda Stamps).

One of the stamps featured the St. George's clubhouse which can also be seen in The Deep.

The clubhouse painted in St. George's team colour blue (Source (left) Bermuda Stamps and (right) Sony Pictures).

According to Bermuda's Bermp Bermp Bermp, maker of great Cup Match gear, two of the cricketers in the scene were batsman Reggie Tucker (Somerset) and wicketkeeper Dennis Wainwright (St. George's). 

Batsman Reggie Tucker (Somerset) and wicketkeeper Dennis Wainwright in 1976 (Source Sony Pictures).

Both Tucker and Wainwright also appeared next to each other in the August-September 1976 edition of Bermuda's Fame magazine. 

(Source Fame August-September 1976 via Bermuda National Library)

The pair were included in Fame's pictorial feature of prospective players who are likely on the pitch during the scene.

(Source Fame August-September 1976 via Bermuda National Library)

The extended TV version of The Deep includes the voice of former Tourism Minister and broadcaster Jim Woolridge. Woolridge, known as the "voice of summer" because of his Cup Match commentaries, can be heard on the TV in David and Gail's Orange Grove hotel room.

"Charles pushes forward that time ... " says Jim Woolridge beneath a bottle of Gosling's Black seal rum (Source Sony Pictures).

The closest view of where the scene was filmed is from the entry on Wellington Slip Road in the south west corner of the ground.

From the Wellington Slip Road entry it's possible to see exactly where Robert Shaw walked along the stand to meet with Louis Gossett (as Cloche). From the south west end of the ground the camera was looking toward the north west and a house behind Shaw can still be seen today.

Robert Shaw as Romer Treece at St. George's Cricket Club in 1976 then and now (Source Sony Pictures and Google). 

The Bermuda Cup Match still takes place every year across two days of public holidays being the Thursday and Friday, before the first Monday, in August. GQ Magazine was at Cup Match in 2017 and has some great photos of the community celebrating the holiday.

Were you at the 1976 Bermuda Cup Match while The Deep was being filmed? Do you know who else appears in the scene? Let The Deep filming locations know in the comments below.

thedeepfilminglocations(at)gmail.com

References