Greyscale

When I was about ten I attended a children's exhibition at Alexandra Palace in London. At one stall you could make your own abstract painting, squeezing some paint on to paper that was spun on a turntable and came out with abstract patterns. I have never had strong fingers, and was concerned I had not applied much paint, but it came out well, with distinct blocks of colour, whereas other children, who had used much more paint, ended up with it all merging into a monochrome blob.

I wondered whether the designer of Kendal Town's kit for their visit to Prescot Cables used a similar process, putting the black and white of their home kit on the turntable and ending up with mid grey. They had a thought for those wearing replica shirts walking or cycling on rural roads by including fluorescent numbers and advertising, ensuring they were visible at night.

Sam Staunton-Turner

I had missed a couple of games, Easter commitments meaning I was unable to travel to South Shields, and the weather enforced change of date at Colwyn Bay clashing with other arrangements. I wondered whether we might need to squeeze this fixture into a rapidly closing window, as it had rained heavily in the morning. A declared crowd of 146 suggested many people came to the same conclusion and stayed indoors to watch Liverpool in European action, and the number who looked to be present suggested that included a few season ticket holders. However, whilst the area around the tunnel was predictably soft, the Gasworks Side was surprisingly firm. The linesmen were on the opposite sides to the usual arrangement: I thought his might be because of the weather, but I think the referee, Mr Buxton, may just prefer that arrangement.

We had matching goalkeepers, which strictly speaking you are not supposed to, but I have never seen both get close enough, even when one goes up for a last minute corner, to make it an issue.

Ben Barnes

Matthew Johnson

Given that, whilst were still in some sort of daylight, the colour of the sky matched the visitors' kit without the bright bits, I knew the light would play havoc with my exposures. There is not much you cannot fix, but it means processing all the images, including the raw conversion, manually.

Reece McNally

This was my first opportunity to see recent signing Morgan Homson-Smith in action.

Morgan Homson-Smith

I occasionally practice rolling into a ball if it looks as though I am about to be between a player and the pitch perimeter, mainly to protect the camera, but also to make sure the player does not collide at full speed with a protruding piece of hard plastic. I thought for a moment I might need to put it into action.

Harry Cain

MJ Monaghan added to the tally of goals he has scored since joining us a few weeks ago.

MJ Monaghan avoids the defender ...

... and the goalkeeper ...

... and celebrates his goal.

The light in the second half was easier to work with, being standard floodlights, and the underlying grey of Kendal's kit was more reflective than I was expecting.

James Edgar

Chris Almond made the result sure with a couple of minutes to go.

Chris Almond

Club Secretary Dan Roberts was celebrating his birthday, so was called upon to present the Man of the Match award to Joe Herbert.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Monaghan, Almond) Kendal Town 0

The colour of the shirt

Hyde United's supporters' coach to Prescot Cables had just dropped off its passengers as I arrived for our game. I was sporting my pink and blue striped rugby-style shirt - as I never get to London to watch Dulwich Hamlet these days, I have to get wear out of it somehow. To be fair, I should not wear it with my waxed jacket, the colours clash horribly. Two gentlemen in the queue took issue with my clothing choices, commenting that a man needs to be brave to wear pink. With some people around, you need to be brave to leave space between the ground and your knuckles, but we will let that pass.

The weather had been wet for a few days, with most of the matches in the area being postponed, and our VertiDraining again paying off, as we survived. The inspection is concerned with the bit the players use - the bit I use, where the substitutes warm up, was decidedly squishy.

A couple of visitors were familiar to us. Dominic Marie, who left us for Marine in October, was now settled at Hyde. I did not capture a very good shot of his return, as he was on the bench, and we were into the territory of pot luck catching specific players by the time he came on. David Brown has been popping up all over Yorkshire, usually scoring against us, for as long as I have been writing, and has now found his way to Cheshire (we observe traditional, and County FA, boundaries on these pages).

David Brown

After the last game, where the goal celebrations pictures featured those frequenting the Fence End, one of the Dugout Irregulars light heartedly expressed a little jealousy that they did not seem to feature, so I made sure I got them in.

The Dugout Irregulars watch Reece McNally

We enjoyed a competitive first half, with a couple of good chances, but without a goal. The match report from the visitors provided a fair record.

Harry Cain

A couple of minutes into the second half Lloyd Dean opened the scoring. I was in a good position to capture it.

Lloyd Dean shoots for goal

The League website has the next two scores in the wrong order, as it suggests Thomas Pratt levelled for the visitors before we went ahead again. However, we went two ahead with a goal from Jordan Wynne. I was on the side by this time, and caught the celebration.

As this was the earliest sunset of the year for a home game, I experimented with spot metering, which seemed to give reasonable results.

Baba Conteh

After our second goal, Hyde made some changes, including bringing off our traditional nemesis, David Brown, and replacing him with Dominic Marie.

Ben Barnes denies Dominic Marie

The almost inevitable happened when Dominic brought the visitors level with 15 minutes to go. We defended well for the remaining time to ensure we kept hold of a point.

After the game, I was speaking to Louis Coyne's father, who I had not realised played for Cables under Joe Gibiliru when I started watching in the 1990s. We agreed on the difficulty of getting a good picture of centre backs, as they can have a good game without getting much of the ball if they are closing down the opposition's ability to play, and there are often other players blocking the view anyway. As it happened I had a bit more luck with that than usual in this game.

Louis Coyne lines up a free kick

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Dean, Wynne) Hyde United 2.

Seeing red

After the first round of the Integro League Cup, Gibbo from Atherton Collieries asked on a forum about the draw for the second round, as this was the first time his club had been in the competition. Although we have competed for some years, I too was unaware of the second round, as I cannot remember the last time I needed to know. However, a competitive fixture is a competitive fixture, and our first round game at home to Bamber Bridge drew a crowd of 165, which was our average gate for league games a couple of seasons ago.

As I arrived, I was invited into the board room to take a photograph of memorabilia to be presented to the club: a photograph of Bob Wilkinson, who was known as The Walloper because of his distinctive hat, a name that attached itself to the club. From Slacky Brow to Hope Street tells us Mr Wilkinson was "the club's number one supporter, whose bellowing cries and other antics were a source of entertainment for the crowd during the first 10 post-war years". Readers can decide for themselves who best maintains the tradition. Bob's grandson Garry Wilkinson presented the photograph to board room host Harry Boydell who remembered Bob's support when he was playing for the club in the 1947-48 season.

Garry Wilkinson presents a picture of his grandfather Bob "The Walloper" Wilkinson to Harry Boydell

I took up position by the side of a surprisingly dry pitch. I had noticed in the previous evening game against Trafford that I was getting slightly better exposures at ground level than from the terraces. This was to be a new challenge, as the visitors were in a red strip considerably less reflective than Trafford's white.

Andy Scarisbrick

A light coloured strip has considerably more influence on exposures than you might think. Most of the images I chose for the final collection came out at a higher ISO than 12800, although strictly speaking this is only a barrier saving jpg files, as it is the point above which the D5300 does not offer full noise reduction. As I rely on Photoshop Elements for noise reduction, the trade off between grain and the image looking like it has been generated by CGI is a gradual one.

Alan Burton 1/200s f/5.6 ISO18102

I set the black to the lowest setting before starting to lose definition, which is particularly effective when players are seen against the sky.

Reece McNally 1/200s f/5.3 ISO25600

The visitors scored from a penalty and a second goal in quick succession.

For part of the first half, I went behind the goal, from where results were limited. On my way back I noticed we now have a properly stripey pitch, as a result of the professional maintenance paid for from the Supporters on the Pitch scheme.

We came for the second half looking more competitive. We have recently seen Dominic Marie depart to Marine and Tunde Owolabi to Stalybridge Celtic, with this blog wishing them all the best in their future endeavours. This provided an opening for Josh Klein-Davies, who has been on the books for a few weeks and marked his competitive debut with a goal.

Josh Klein-Davies shoots for goal

The game was starting to look more open until a rather dubious refereeing decision. Harry Cain appeared to be brought down in the penalty area, in a position where it did not look particularly advantageous to dive, but was adjudged to have done so by the referee. As he had already collected a yellow card, we were down to 10 men. This completely changed the game with Bamber Bridge making full use of their one man advantage to inflict only our second home defeat of the season.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 1 Bamber Bridge 4

Not quite so lucky blue

Over the years I have been watching Prescot Cables, the away kit has generally alternated between red and blue. We have recently taken delivery of a smart new all blue kit - and if you have one block colour, blue is the least problematic according to the FA guidance on colour blindness in football, red having a tendency to clash with the opposition or merge into the pitch for about 6% of your potential audience. We also wore the blue kit winning at Tadcaster and Trafford, so it was starting to look lucky - football people are a superstitious bunch.

With illness, work and other commitments, we have not mustered much of a turnout for our Train Crew over the last few months, but we gathered a reasonable number for our trip to Mossley, assembling in the Station Buffet at Stalybridge and the Fleece at Mossley. After the latter, some of our party also tried another pub, whose name escapes me, but I stayed put as it sounded like an establishment for the less discerning drinker.

Still being unaware of the precise etiquette for going pitchside, I went for a repeat of putting on my high vis and wandering through the gate looking as though I knew what I was doing, chatting to goalkeeping coach Garry Williams as I did so. He was hoping for some shots of the bench. I was able to oblige.

Louis Coyne watches Garry Williams demonstrate his ball skills

There had been heavy showers earlier in the day. As I walked round the pitch, there was a definite squelch from the part worn down by the linesmen, but the playing surface looked firm. I took up position in front of the wall at the Yorkshire end.

Yours truly in position - photo by Richie Brown

There was another heavy shower just after kick off. I caught a couple of shots managing not to noise reduce out the rain.

Baba Conteh

It stopped raining after about 10 minutes, so I was able to remove the wet weather gear, uncomfortably warm in mild weather, from both myself and the camera.

My position gives a good view of the dark arts of defending at set pieces.

Dominic Marie

We rarely do well visiting Mossley, and normal service was maintained when the hosts scored after 25 minutes.

For the second half I took up a similar position at the Lancashire end. In this location, the wall is low enough that I could probably sit behind it and gain the same effect. Our goal continued to be kept busy.

Marcus Burgess

The hosts make their win secure with a goal after 75 minutes.

Near the end of the game, an elderly home supporter took advantage of the low wall to engage me in conversation, asking where I display my photos as he was looking forward to one of their second goal. He asked how many I normally put online, and, when I replied it was usually 60 or 70, about 10% of what I take, he wondered if I include goals we concede. Hearing that I generally do not, he departed with an air of satisfaction at seeing a win mixed with resignation that he would not have a visual reminder.

Despite some aerobatics ...

Harry Cain

Alan Burton

... we were unable to make a reply.

This was the first time I have been pitchside in damp weather. I was therefore more than a little stiff for the walk down the hill to the Britannia Inn and the station.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Mossley 2 Prescot Cables 0.

What are Kells?

A number of settlements around the Irish Sea have the name of Kells, with examples in Westmeath, Kilkenny, Antrim, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and the home of Thatto Heath Crusaders' visitors, near Whitehaven on the Cumberland coalfield. Most derive from forts or raised land (and it is logical to put a fort on a hill). Continuing our references to railway curiosities, the hill on which this Kells stands was once accessed by the Corckickle Brake cable worked incline.

My main photographic customer, Prescot Cables, has had a relatively stable team over the last couple of years, so I have not had to learn the names of a new team from scratch. I do not need to caption pictures for Thatto Heath, but I still like to know who I am watching, and they post the team sheet online, which is a considerable help.

Owen Scholes

Rugby league seems to me the code with least clues as to who might be who when you watch a team for the first time. In football, provided I have a team sheet, I quickly remember the name of the goalkeeper. The full backs take a lot of throw ins and free kicks, and I work forwards and inwards from there.

Jamie Tracey

In rugby union, the scrum half is quite identifiable, and the props, flankers and number 8 will quickly become familiar, as they spend a lot of time on their scrums. The scrum half will also extract the ball from rucks and mauls, and, since they stopped doing dive passes, will probably be one of the cleaner players on the pitch.

This is no help in league, where scrums are uncontested affairs to keep the forwards engaged, giving the side putting in the chance to run. Being clean is not much of a distinction on a hot, dry day - I dread to think what going to a summer game has done for employment among laundry workers.

The same player often performs a similar function at the play-the-ball, but that is less of a photographic opportunity than the breakdown in union - the interest comes much more in runs and tackles.

Sean Kenny

One player will often take most of the kicks in a game - it helps if you have a memorable name, at times I suspect a good and a bad thing.

Bobbie Goulding

As for the rest, it is a matter of matching back and front by boots and haircuts, and, in a summer game with short sleeves, tattoos.

Thatto Heath got off to a flying start, so much so that Dan Birkett scored the first try before I had made up my mind where to stand and was dithering behind the dugout. It was a competitive game, with the visitors scoring two unconverted tries to put them ahead at half time. The lead was exchanged twice in the second half, with the hosts eventually collecting the points.

After the game, the chap who sells the half time draw tickets (which if I win is a donation, as I never remember to check) engaged me in conversation. He initially thought I was with Kells, as I was wearing a shirt with narrow red hoops, like a Lancashire rugby union shirt - although I am not sure any sort of red and white hoops are normal wear in these parts!

As I came to post the link to the pictures on Twitter, I discovered another use of the name Kells - looking for the opposition's account, I had to scroll through quite a lot of people using it as an abbreviation for Kelly before I found what I was looking for.

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

Final score: Thatto Heath Crusaders 22 Kells 16.

Mining

My limited research into the history of sports and those who played them in Lancashire and Yorkshire suggests a rough rule of thumb: after 1895, mill workers seem to have played football, miners played rugby league, and farmers and the commercial classes played rugby union, with football becoming more popular amongst the miners by the time of, and certainly after, the First World War. This occupational grouping makes sense - to arrange sport after work, your colleagues are probably a good group amongst whom to start.

There is therefore a strong presence of amateur rugby league in the former Lancashire coalfield with many club names referring to their industrial heritage. With Thatto Heath Crusaders playing at Leigh Miners Rangers, I found a bus from St Helens, and having paid the extra £2 for an Arriva North West monthly season ticket rather than a Merseyside one, it was all included.

On arrival, I went through the large, well maintained bar. At the cash desk by the door I received a neat nightclub style stamp, which, as soon as I put my hand in my pocket, smudged to look like a nasty insect bite. The pitch was railed on both sides, but, being used to football ground gradings, I was unsure how to get to the other side, until I realised they trust you to walk behind the dead ball line without railing it off. To be fair to football, given that a try is scored some yards away, there is less chance of a player running into you and sending you flying.

I am not sure what colours of kit the match officials have available to them in the amateur game, but I was not entirely convinced by their choice.

Having said that, the only other colour I have seen at this level is yellow, which would have been even more of a clash.

The hosts were propping up the division, with the visitors challenging for the top spot, but there was no room for complacency. Leigh had the stronger start, but were unable to turn it into points. A home supporter may have been a bit pessimistic: about a minute after the first Thatto Heath try came an announcement asking for someone to move their car as it was blocking another vehicle. Another local was a bit enthusiastic and had to be escorted off when the try was scored, perhaps not appreciating it was for the opposition.

Leigh looked as though they may have a chance towards the end of the first half, taking advantage of errors from the visitors.

Thatto Heath continued strongly in the second half, although the game was never totally out of Leigh's reach, the visitors eventually securing two valuable league points.

Photographing rugby, I have a "try is a try" principle, in the same way as the corresponding "goal is a goal" principle in football. I could probably have done with showing a bit more post to see the location.

By the time rugby league came about, railway time was firmly established, ensuring time was the same at all places in the country rather than varying by a few minutes from town to town. It is a little known fact that the 34 bus from St Helens to Leigh prefers the older system. At least that is the best explanation for the outward bus getting earlier as it got nearer to Leigh, and now I trotted up to the bus station a good two minutes early only to see the bus drive off.

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

Final score Leigh Miners Rangers 20 Thatto Heath Crusaders 28

In the black

Having had three weeks' practice, I am a little more punctual in my arrival at Thatto Heath Crusaders, and in two of those weeks, I would have been on time if we had Pay-As-You-Go Lobster cards for public transport like in London. As it is, an Arriva ticket on my phone is my best option for the week as a whole, but means I have to let Stagecoach buses (a third of the service on the 10A) go past. It's grim up north.

Play had only just started when I arrived for the Challenge Trophy game against Oulton Raiders. I was not sure from where the visitors had come, but the accents from their bench suggested one of the higher numbered junctions on the M62, and, as I later found, near the former grandly named, but rather less grandly operated East & West Yorkshire Union Railway.

Looking for fixtures online, you can encounter silos, and, had I been relying on the National Conference League, I would have thought there was no game this weekend, even though the Trophy is for clubs in that league. Fortunately, rugby-league.com turned out to be a reliable source of information.

I realised as I set up, that I would have a challenge I had not encountered before, a predominantly black kit on a bright sunny day. I do not come across this in football, as, at the level I watch, black is still reserved for the match officials.

The challenges for the players go without saying, and the water carriers were kept busy. For me, the camera exposed for an average of the kit and surroundings, so I had to tweak the lighting later to avoid a lack of detail, but to do so as not to wash out the background.

The visitors, were wearing light grey, which I have also not encountered before.

I still cannot make my mind up as to whether it is better to photograph from the end of the pitch or the side. I started from the end, as this put the sun behind the camera, and me in some welcome shade.

The unfortunate side effect was that a lot of play was happening with the white walls of the indoor training hall in the background.

I even captured a try under the posts - at least reasonably close to one, the referee was in my way when the ball was grounded.

With the hosts in the Premier Division, and the visitors in Division 2, there was a clear balance of advantage on paper. Oulton kept themselves within range for the first half, remaining within one try at half time. As often happens in games with this gap between the teams, Thatto Heath took a firm grip on scoring in the second. By this time I had moved to the side of the pitch, with the trees making a more manageable background on many of the pictures.

Being positioned near to Oulton's bench, I could hear they maintained a positive approach, still encouraging the team to keep pushing for a consolation score even when the game was well beyond them.

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

Final score: Thatto Heath Crusaders 36 Oulton Raiders 10

Some beer left

Prescot Cables held this year's Beer Festival later than in previous years, opting for the Easter weekend. It made sense, particularly with our tenants St Helens Town entertaining City of Liverpool on Good Friday. Arriving early for our Easter Monday game against Bamber Bridge to see if there was any beer left, I met Dr Tony. Mindful of St Paul's advice to the Romans regarding those who esteem one day above another and those who esteem every day alike, we compared notes on Easter. After taking everything out of church for Good Friday, putting it back in scrubbed and polished on Saturday, and services each day, this was the first chance I had for football or beer. Tony is a Baptist, so he had a normal Sunday, with a couple of bank holidays to boot, and had been able to fully enjoy the beer festival.

Before the game, David Williams, who is retiring as match day announcer, and would be unable to attend the presentation evening, was presented with the Dave Brennan Trophy.

David Williams, with his wife Margaret, and Richard Harnetty, his successor as match day announcer

Neither team had league safety concerns or playoff hopes, but, after looking shaky a few weeks ago, last season's points total and league position were in our reach, whilst the visitors had the final of the Integro Cup a couple of days later.

We were fielding a depleted squad, in quantity at least: when I first saw the players warming up, I counted 11, although two substitutes emerged shortly afterwards. We made our final addition for the season, in the shape of Louis Coyne, who joined us before the transfer window closed at the end of March.

Louis Coyne

We were playing in our away kit, having played at Ossett Town on Saturday: we had to use the home kit there, and the laundry is not open over the bank holiday weekend.

Valter Fernandes

We made the better start, and Josh Dolling put us ahead after half an hour.

Josh Dolling

Alistair Waddecar has been remarkably successful at scoring against us: I cannot remember a game against Bamber Bridge in the last few seasons when he has not. I was relieved he was on the bench for this game, and thought our best chance of all three points would be if he were to stay there. This was not to be, and he came on to score ten minutes from time.

Dale Wright takes a throw in, their chap looks very cross

With the late Easter, this was the last home league game of the season, and we could enjoy it with the serious business wrapped up. There was time for the team to pose for pictures with the supporters.

The Rogues & Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match award went to Andy Scarisbrick, a product of our youth team, who seemed to have fallen out of favour earlier in the season, but a change of position has seen him make an impressive return. With the bar full of people enjoying the beer festival, we made the presentation in the Board Room, where we could raise the advertising background high enough to mean I did not need to photoshop bits on to the top.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 1 (Dolling) Bamber Bridge 1.