Disrupted arrangements

Many Prescot Cables supporters were looking forward to visiting South Shields on the 9th December. Rooms, train tickets and minibuses had been booked, with deposits and fares paid, and we expected a large support. Two weeks ago, the fixture was switched by the league to the 25th November as Droylsden progressed in the FA Trophy and South Shields were knocked out, so our longest away trip was brought forward by a mere 2 weeks at short notice. We would have had difficulty raising a side, as many players needed more than two weeks' notice to get time off work or rearrange family matters. Fortunately, South Shields were prepared for the possibility of going anywhere if they had won in the Trophy, so we were able to play our home game this weekend, with the away game over the Easter bank holiday.

We have not been accustomed to top of the table clashes, but the league leaders were visiting third place, so I was not surprised to find two coaches parked outside with a third manoeuvring in as I arrived. We attracted an attendance of 418, including a flag bearer from Scarborough, who called in on the way back from his abortive trip to Colwyn Bay, where their game fell victim to a late downpour. Our Verti-Draining once again paid off, as the pitch, whilst heavy, had no standing water from the week's rain.

There were a number of photographers, including Andy Nunn, whose work I have seen with Dulwich Hamlet and various southern clubs, some way off his normal circuit representing the Non League Paper. You can see his pictures here.

The visitors were captained by Julio Arca, formerly of Sunderland and Middlesbrough, and Argentina at youth level. I was tempted to engage in Copa America related trolling by asking Rod the bugler to play the instrumental introduction of the Chilean national anthem, but I suspected it might not be in his repertoire.

Julio Arca pursues Jordan Wynne

Two photographers were with the visitors, and Andy joined them at the Roadshow End, so I had the sole lens trained from the Safari Park End.

Reece McNally

There was an extra fixing behind the net (which may have been for the visitors' video camera), which prevented me crossing the pitch, so I stayed in one position for the whole of the half.

For the second half, I once again started in front of the stand at the Roadshow End. Many away supporters decided to stay put, either because they liked the cover amplifying their sound, or they had assessed the likely weather and did not want to be out in it. Either way, they were joined by our Fence End, so I had plenty of noise behind me.

Chris Almond

After a few minutes, I needed to move to the side for the light. The weather since the previous afternoon had been showery, and given the noise it made against my roof and window, was mainly hail. We had a couple of hail showers whilst I was on the Gasworks side. Hailstones are large enough to attract the attention of the autofocus, thus ruining a fair proportion of my exposures.

Harry Cain makes a tackle

We were holding the visitors at bay when Louis Coyne was dismissed for a foul denying a goal scoring opportunity, so for the last ten minutes we were defending with a man down. A superb team effort secured the draw and meant the visitors dropped points for only the second time in the league this season.

With a whole team performance, the man of the match award went to the captain.

James McCulloch receives his award

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here - the Pitchero uploader has at last acquired an option to display the pictures in the order I took them - and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 South Shields 0.

Weather of two halves

We were fortunate having a few dry days before Prescot Cables' home game against Mossley, although conditions were unlikely to be anything other than soft.

Before the match we observed a minute's applause for Linda Scott, who looked after the boardroom and match officials' hospitality for some years, and who died a couple of weeks ago after a short illness. The hospitality work is often not seen by the supporters, but it is important for maintaining good relations with other clubs, the League and County FA, and tributes from other clubs in particular illustrated how well Linda carried it out.

At the start of play, the sun was low in the sky, so the players were moving in and out of shadow, a situation for which auto exposure was invented. I do not think a lot about numbers in photography, you can expend so much effort remembering them you forget the picture. For most settings I just remember directions: faster shutter speeds for better freezing of action; higher ISO for more sensitivity, paid for by more grain. However, the first half repays some technical observation. We started off with a positively summery 1/1600s, f/5.6 at ISO 400.

James Edgar

Looking into the shadow of the stand, there is less light available, giving us 1/500s, f/5.3 at ISO 1600.

Andy Scarisbrick

The automatic settings are very responsive, here is Sam Staunton Turner at 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 1000.

Two seconds later, Sam has moved a couple of yards into more light, so the speed has increased to 1/800s, still at f/5.6 and the sensitivity decreased to ISO 800.

Amidst this technical information, I noticed there were half a dozen new advertising boards, all good revenue for the club. We are keen that you do not let your kids grow up thinking football is a television programme, but when the football is not on and you want to watch television, one of our sponsors will be able to sort out your reception.

Andy Nugent

Emerging after half time, the weather was a bit different.

Joe Herbert and Antony Shinks

I stayed under the stand for the first few minutes, and caught up with Ben Morrow, on loan to Widnes, whose game at Eccleshall had been postponed due to a band of rain further inland. Ben was feeling the cold in a decent coat with a furry hood. His father pointed out there are advantages of not playing in this weather.

Marcus Burgess

Once the worst of the hail had cleared, I went to the gasworks side. The wind was permeating my running gloves, and the shutter release on this camera does not seem as forgiving of slightly angled pressure as my previous one. In the end I had to take my glove off to ensure a fully downward pressure, completing the loss of sensation in my fingers.

We finished the game with eight men after a chaotic last ten minutes. Rob Doran was sent off after becoming involved in a melée, so we will miss him for at least three games in a couple of weeks. Then Charlie Duke was stretchered off after we had used all our substitutes, and having only come on himself a few minutes previously. Finally, Danny Flood, who had also come on from the bench, was chasing a ball with Mossley's Dougie Carroll when they ended up in a heap with Danny coming off worse.

With all this, and Mossley scoring a goal in each half to take the points, there was only one thing to do afterwards, namely warm myself in front of the coal fire in the Sun.

Photo by Steve Heninghem, crop by me

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Mossley 2.

Watching Liverpool FC ... no, not that one

The Prescot Cables Train Crew were approaching our trip to Radcliffe Borough last weekend with some anticipation. This would be our first away trip, indeed our first game, since New Year's Day. We even had a new leader in beer and pub choices, Richie having delegated duties for the day to Luke, one of our pharmacologists, who is from Prestwich, and who could therefore use local knowledge. This was despite his mainly drinking cider with ice, although he does have the real stuff when it is available. As an aside, why did ice in cider take off? From being unheard of when I was Luke's age, 20 years ago, it became ubiquitous, to the point that a few years ago, my friend Roger had to stop the barman reaching to the ice bucket for his pint of the local real stuff in Worcester, where you might expect them to be more traditionally minded.

What is becoming a rather monotonous pattern of weather, with heavy rain on Friday night, put paid to that, with the game at Radcliffe having been called off after an early pitch inspection. So, with Birkenhead Park having made use of my photos from my last visit, I made my way back. Having commented that one of the constituents of Liverpool St Helens FC was the original club to hold the name of Liverpool FC, I found they were the opposition this weekend.

Before I set out, there was a downpour that worked its way across the country, reaching the Midlands, Yorkshire and London during the time for football, causing some matches to be abandoned as five minutes' rain deposited pools of standing water on pitches.

At Birkenhead, most of the water seemed to have soaked in. The game started with the kit looking pristine.

We can see the roof of the changing rooms in this picture - I assume the slipped tiles are from successful conversions, although a couple out of the picture to the left must have come from some very wayward attempts - or successful ones from a very tight angle.

The state of the ground meant nobody stayed spotless for long ...

... even the scrum halves, whose duties involve staying on their feet more than many other players, were starting to look a bit muddy.

It was clear quite quickly that the home side were going to dominate this game, having gained the bonus point for scoring four tries within the first half hour.

When I was selecting the photographs for the slide show, I very quickly switched into "club" mode. Although I tend to follow my local side even when I am visiting a club I do not usually support, when I am planning to use the photographs just for my own audience, I will pick some individual shots of the visiting players. Once I know I am working for a club audience, I concentrate heavily on the home side.

Eric the webmaster asked me light heartedly to look out for his son, who was playing in the second row. Fortunately he had a good game, scoring a try ...

... and then giving a (much needed in view of the wind) hand in converting it.

As well as the wind, we had a short hailstorm, which always makes for a good photo effect, although less good for the players, or for the person of the photographer for that matter.

The sun came out for the last few minutes of the game, although that did not mean conditions were any easier, the wind was still gusting strongly, mainly to the disadvantage of the visiting team. Here is one of their players taking a kick from his own in goal area.

After a gust of wind caught it as it was in mid air over the 22 metre line, it ended back more or less where it started.

Heavily one sided games in any sport are never really the best, apart from for bragging rights for the players and supporters, The rest of the pictures from the sort of game at which I am glad to have something to do can be seen here.

Final score: Birkenhead Park 73 Liverpool St Helens 7