Orange mist

When I last went to watch Prescot Cables play away at Clitheroe a couple of years ago, I was looking forward to the views from the castle. Unfortunately, the advertised views were unavailable, due to thick fog. On this occasion, I avoided disappointment, managing my expectations using the Met Office weather forecast pages, which told me there would be more fog, so there was little point making the trip to the top of the hill. Fortunately, the New Inn was available for such eventualities.

Clitheroe Castle

The fog had mostly cleared by kick off, but our supporters generated some of their own. I had been concerned when one supporter said he had obtained some marine distress flares - I had visions of the scenes you see in Germany and Italy, but with supporters being hosed down by the fire brigade as a precaution. I need not have worried, as they were the type that does not give off flames, only smoke. If I were in distress in a marine environment, I would want to make sure the rescue services were in sight before letting one off rather than expecting them to be visible at a distance. I also understand they are lit with a match, which should be interesting in 10' high waves.

"Tricky Robo" makes some smoke - the Clitheroe steward mistook him for an Australian

Unfortunately, the wind was a bit gusty at ground level, so, rather than gently wafting around the ground, most of the smoke blew over the wall.

The game got under way in fairly low light, unlike our recent trips to Yorkshire, and more like we would expect in November. Clitheroe have three floodlight pylons on each side. After about 15 minutes, they switched on the lights on one pylon on each side to add to the natural light, which I have never seen in a match before.

Danny Lambert (Prescot) and Daley Woods (Clitheroe)

Readers with good memories will recognise the Clitheroe player chasing Danny Lambert as Daley Woods, who made a few appearances at the beginning of the 2009-10 season. He left to play for Formby in the North West Counties League, and judging from the match reports seems to have become established at Clitheroe.

The ground has some cover on all 4 sides, allowing the photographer to stay under cover for a range of vantage points, which was handy later when the promised rain arrived. They also have a pitch that slopes from side to side. We can use this as an example of how to use background features to check your picture is level, and make adjustments in cropping if you were holding the camera at an angle. Take this picture of Jack Booth. Here is how it came off the camera, adjusted for lighting.

We can see the slope of the pitch in the background, so levelling the shot with the ground will not work. We can see two fences, one concrete, and behind it a wooden one (best seen if you click on the photo to enlarge). We can see the disadvantage of the wooden fence, these will often slope with the land. The concrete fence, however, is a lot more useful - if this type of fence is not built with the posts vertical and the concrete panels horizontal, the weight of the fence will probably pull it over, so we can usually rely on them, and I have done so here.

In the background of the large picture we can see something else that is useful for lining up - a house. These can usually be relied on to have the walls vertical and the windows horizontal, apart from older houses that have settled into odd shapes over the years. When I moved in to my house, an elderly neighbour who had lived in the street for 50 years advised me not to try striped wallpaper, as they were built 100 years ago on clinker foundations, and the settlement meant I would never be able to line up the paper with all the edges.

One of the principles of this blog is "pies before pictures". Last season, one of our supporters, Richie, as well as finding excellent real ale pubs, ran an informal pie league. Anyone seen eating a pie could expect to be approached to rate filling, pastry, temperature and value for money. It was the last that clinched the title for Clitheroe, ahead of the rather expensive Farsley, with a large tasty pie, excellent gravy and peas for a reasonable £2.20.

Over the years, our teams have, on average, been a bit on the small side: we do not have a pool of industrial sized Yorkshirepersons from which to draw players. This season we have had Chris Rimmer providing a welcome physical presence in defence, and when called upon, further forward. We are not accustomed to seeing one of our players towering over the opposition.

Chris Rimmer uses his height advantage

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.