Not a game for analogue television

One of those odd memories that have stuck in my mind is a short television item from 1982 on the retirement due to injury of the then England rugby union captain, Bill Beaumont. There was a very brief clip of his leaving the field in his last game, for Lancashire, with the traditional narrow red hoops somewhat disagreeing with the picture. The television picture is mostly different now, I was surprised to find digital had not reached Scarborough when I visited a couple of weeks ago. It also shows the change in status of the County Championship since 1982, when international players were on the field, and television and press in attendance.

In Lancashire's final game in the pool stages of the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup at Broughton Park FC, their opponents, Cheshire, were also wearing their traditional kit, of narrower navy hoops.

Living in Liverpool, I find games in Manchester area far enough away not to be local, but familiar enough not be exploring somewhere new. Now I do not work there any more, I do not even have the compensation of having the fare covered by my season ticket. Misjudging the length of the bus journey meant I was a few minutes late for the game. The club combined the game with their Manchester 7s competition, and the wristband for my admission looked as though it would entitle me to watch the rest of the weekend's competition if I chose to do so.

I arrived to find an evenly matched game with Cheshire having a slight advantage.

The crowd will often appear in sports pictures, and in most locations they will blend in. However, when there are plenty of people watching, we may need to reject a picture from the far side of the pitch, as the spectators are in the same focus as the players, so the action does not stand out, as in the example below.

The "try is a try" principle came into play as well, with the slightly less than perfect focus of Lancashire's Chris Briers grounding the ball after an excellent run.

This illustrates (or maybe not) a small difference between rugby league and union - league has a specific requirement for "downward pressure" to be applied to the ball for a try, union does not. I am not sure how much of a distinction this is in practice. Both require that the player's hand, arm or torso be in contact with the ball, which must be in contact with the ground. As matches are not conducted under laboratory conditions, with precision springs and balances on hand, I am not sure under what circumstances you could comfortably say downward pressure had not been applied.

The unofficial motto of this blog has always been "food before photos". This is a variable at county games, ranging from "bring your own" to a veritable feast. Because there were people on site for the 7s tournament as well as the county game, there were 3 or 4 food stalls, from which I selected a more substantial portion of chili than I was expecting. So, having not snapped the first 15 minutes of the first half, I was a non photographing spectator for the first 15 minutes of the second half whilst I finished my dinner - I can manage a camera and a pie, but this was a more substantial meal.

As was the case in the other two games, Lancashire were stronger in the second half, especially once the replacements started to be used, as most were from Fylde, along with 5 or 6 of the starting XV, so a majority of the players were used to playing together, giving a decisive advantage.

The result saw Lancashire off to Twickenham for the Final for the 7th time in the last decade. Good news from across the Pennines was that Yorkshire had overcome Northumberland, avoiding relegation from the pool, and ensuring the traditional hostilities can be continued next year.

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

Premier turf

In the years I have been watching football, which I started at around beginning of the Premiership, I have stuck with the grassroots side of the game, and have never watched a game at a Premiership ground. The nearest I have come was watching Cambridge United when they were still in the Football League at Bloomfield Road, before Blackpool started to rise through the League.

This changed last week when I watched a game at Goodison Park, the home of Everton FC (not to be confused with Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar, Chile, the home of Everton FC). Local Sunday team Paddock FC had booked the pitch for their Hayward Transport Cup, and invited Prescot Cables to be their opponents.

Joe Gibiliru Jnr

If you mention Sunday football, many will think of 22 players at less than peak fitness, and this does indeed take place, but top Sunday sides are of a similar standard to the EvoStik League, not least as many non contract players also play for a Sunday side. Contract players are generally prohibited from doing so by their contracts, although that does not always stop them.

Our Chairman was able to include me in the touchline party to take some photos. I mentioned in a previous post that if it were possible to dig a pit from which to watch football, the quality of the pictures would repay the effort. In larger grounds, the front row of seats is set so the eye level of people sitting in them is at about the level of the players knees.

I was happy with the results, looking up to the play gives a greater sense of action than looking down or on the same level as is the case at most non League grounds.

Steven Tames

Fraser Ablett

The vantage point has one odd effect. I do not think the pitch sloped away to the sides, but when looking action on the other side of the pitch, it gave the impression that it did. The gentleman walking in front of the seats is at the same level as me, so my eye level is about 3' above the pitch, but we only see half of the ball above the level of the pitch.

Francis Foy

The match kicked off at 7.15, with the spectators and dugouts on the Goodison Road side, with the setting sun behind our backs, the stand blocking the sun at pitch level.

This presented an interesting lighting challenge, in the shape of seats - 10,478 of the shiny little things in the opposite stand, all reflecting light on to the pitch. It is not an issue at the grounds I normally visit, and not an issue when Everton are playing, as people will be sitting on most of them. In a pitch let like this, only a small part of the ground is in use, as opening any more will dramatically increase the required stewarding, and therefore the cost. Overall, they helped with the lighting, and provided a good contrasting background for some shots.

James McCulloch

However, they also meant some shots were strongly backlit, sometimes in just part of the frame, even after the usual lighting adjustments.

Stuart McMullan

I even stepped briefly on to the turf, as the people from Paddock asked me to take pictures of a couple of their players receiving awards for 10 years' service to the club.

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

Between the salt water and the sea strand

"The old rugby club or the new one", asked the driver as I boarded the bus. I was concerned - was there some sort of breakaway, and a risk of finding no game? Further clarification disclosed that old club had been demolished: Scarborough Rugby Club sold their old ground in a prime development location and used the proceeds to obtain new premises in Scalby, overlooking the North Sea. The facilities were very impressive, some of the best I have seen at this level, with a large clubhouse, a gym and indoor facilities for the players and for income generation, 6 or 7 training pitches, an immaculate First Team pitch, and a stand with its back to the sea, a sensible direction for games in January when the wind is whipping off the Dogger Bank.

The club was this year's venue for the Yorkshire v Lancashire match in the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup.

The last couple of times it has been Yorkshire's turn to host, the game has been in the old West Riding, but this time we were deep into their home territory. Both sides naturally want to win the pool stage and get through to the final at Twickenham, they also want the other not to be relegated to the pool for the County Plate, so we can have the fixture the following year. The game was promoted well around the town, including a big banner in the main shopping street.

The weather was much better than the Met Office app had been predicting, sunny in the morning for a walk round the town and Castle, and intermittent cloud cover during the game, one of those afternoons where Auto ISO comes into play.

In football, I refer to the "a goal is a goal" principle, where a picture that would otherwise be rejected makes the final collection as it depicts a goal being scored: the equivalent in rugby is "a try is a try". The try was in the original Rules (I am not sure when they changed the name to Laws) of Association Football, as well as the Laws of the Rugby Football Union, and only allowed the team a kick at goal. The points system was adopted by the RFU in 1886, although the idea of an opportunity to try for goal persisted in rugby union in theory until 1979, with the points for the goal replacing those for the try.

Here are a couple of examples of the "a try is a try" principle.

Here, sharp focus is on the far post rather than on Lancashire's Christopher Johnson crossing the line.

Here there is a ruck on the line with the referee obscuring the view, but on the right, Lancashire's Evan Stewart is getting away from the melée to score.

For the photographer, rugby union is noted for its set pieces, such as the scrum. For the last few years, forming the scrum has taken place in 4 distinct stages on the referee's instruction - crouch, touch, pause, engage. This is to reduce the likelihood of shoulder, and most importantly, neck injuries when the two packs come together: before the rule was introduced, packs would come together at what seemed to me an alarming speed from a couple of yards apart.

The scrum here is observing the "touch" command, to ensure that they engage from no more than an arm's length apart. It may be my imagination, I have watched less than half a dozen games this season, and I cannot adduce photographic evidence, but referees seem to be calling the sequence more slowly than previously with the effect that the players are anticipating the commands - "engage" seems sometimes to be a statement of fact rather than an instruction.

I also tried a new vantage point for rugby: I remained at the end that Lancashire were attacking for the second half. As the game attracted a good crowd, the motivation was mainly gaining elbow room. The action seemed quite distant, looking across the in goal area.

However, there was a better view of the players running directly towards me ...

... tackling the opposition running in the opposite direction ...

... and it is easier to capture a try without other players or the match officials obscuring the view.

Oliver Brennand scores one of his four tries

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

Our noble Duke

Wikipedia tells us that as late as the second half of the 20th century, it was possible to hear the second line of the National Anthem sung in Lancaster as "Long live our noble Duke", in recognition of the monarch's title as Duke of Lancaster. It is also sung thus at the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, the remaining part of John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace. Strangely, my mother also taught me this version when I was a child. Our nearest town, East Grinstead, around which our family had lived for over 120 years, was once owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, so there must have been a local tradition, dating back to my great grandparents' time, and long since gone.

I was unable to test any of this when I visited Lancaster for Lancashire's first game in their campaign to retain the County Championship. The top tier of the competition, for the Bill Beaumont Cup is organised on a league format, with 2 divisions of 4 teams each, with the winners playing for the Cup at Twickenham. The games in the league stage are held at clubs around the participating counties. This fixture, against Northumberland, was played at Vale of Lune.

I enjoy a visit to Lancaster, it is a compact and pleasant place to wander round, with some good entries in the Good Beer Guide for pre and post match refreshment.

Many years ago, the County Championships were s stepping stone for players to an international call up. They have diminished in importance since, although there is a representative England Counties XV. They are still an opportunity to see some good players in action, with some from the Championship, and the bulk from National Leagues 1 and 2. Some players named in the squad, such as the fly half for the last few seasons, Alex Davies, were missing as they were still needed by their clubs, in Alex' case for London Welsh in the Championship playoffs.

Alex Davies in action in last season's competition

The County side teams up for three or four games a year, so, whilst I recognised some faces on the pitch, it was not so easy to put names to them apart from those who have played in the competition for a few seasons, such as Rossendale's Stephen Nutt.

Stephen Nutt

Not seeing rugby union very frequently, I am not as clear as I could be about the rules, especially in the maul.

A maul (I think)

I understand the principle, the player with the ball enlists his team mates to push forward against the opposition who are trying to impede or reverse his progress. Part of the objective is to get the ball out of the melée, so you can pass it to someone who is in a position to run with it. Where I get lost is with a picture like that above: the pushing seems to be going on entirely in front of the man with the ball.

A few years ago, rugby union was criticised by some as a game with the ball being hoofed from one lineout to another and most of points coming from penalty kicks. This has not been my experience, and I was fortunate enough not to see a game I heard about with a score of 63-60 with not a single try. This game was very much one of running and handling, with all but 6 of Lancashire's 42 points, and all of Northumberland's 34 points, coming from tries and conversions.

A conversion or penalty kick provides a good opportunity for the photographer, with plenty of time to focus, as the kicker usually needs a carefully practised routine to ensure he strikes the ball in the right way to get it on target, more difficult than it sounds with a ball designed for handling.

Christopher Johnson

Ashley Smith

Rugby has been more keen than some other sports to embrace technology to assist the referee, especially radio microphones to allow the officials to communicate without the referee needing to look out for a waving flag as well as watching the players and the ball. Being wired for sound, sometimes they need to be rewired.

The referee receives engineering attention

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

Daylight saving

When I posted a collection of pictures from a Prescot Cables Reserves game in February, I got some appreciative comments from the players, who must often feel their work goes unobserved, so when I had the opportunity to catch their last game of the season, against West Kirby Reserves I was happy to get along. This was technically our home game, but played at West Kirby, having previously been postponed due to pitch availability issues at our normal home base.

Lee Owens keeps the ball under pressure

One of my most memorable afternoons watching Prescot was at a Reserve game, in about 1993. 5 or 6 of us who had watched the club at University got together, with a view to watching the First Team away to Skelmersdale. This was before the days of websites and text messages, so it was more than a little inconvenient when I met the rest of the party at the bus stop to tell them the Echo was reporting the First Team game was at Bradford Park Avenue instead - my first attempt to attend an away game at Skelmersdale thwarted, the mission finally being accomplished some eighteen years later. We therefore went to Prescot, and were in luck, as the Reserves were hosting Castleton Gabriels. Our small but noisy crowd took up position behind the goal, much to the consternation of Castleton's manager, who complained to the referee that we were putting their rather youthful goalkeeper off.

There was no such crowd on this occasion, with the club being represented off the field by our Chairman, Tony Zeveron, also fulfilling the duties of Match Secretary. Despite looking at the teamsheet, I omitted to take a picture of it, or to wrtite down the names, so my knowledge of the players' names was limited to those who had made first team appearances, from those who have been called upon regularly by the First Team, such as Chris McGann and Francis Foy ...

Chris McGann scores his first goal of three

Francis Foy

 ... to those called up more recently, like Liam Davies and Adam Castley.

Liam Davies

Adam Castley

The game kicked off at a surprisingly late time of 6.45, but this proved to be sufficient to complete the game in daylight, with the bright light often found near the coast, and sunset due at 8.42. A friend was off to a game in London the same evening, which had to start at 6.15, as sunset there is about 20 minutes earlier. It's grim up north - but not at this time of year!

Even the First Team can sometimes find less than the full 5 substitutes on the bench, with players absent due to injuries or work commitments. This can be even more so with the Reserves, with only two substitutes named on this occasion - both of whom were used towards the end of the game. One was the manager, Joe Gibiliru Snr, who had registered himself as a player for such an emergency, 21 years since I first saw him play a game for Prescot. He had, I believe, also played a full 90 minutes for the Reserves on the previous Saturday.

Joe Gibiliru Snr comes on as a substitute

The Reserves have inevitably been affected by the First Team taking Amateur status, with Joe having stepped into the breach when the previous Reserve manager resigned fearing that he would be left with no team if they were called upon to replace departung First Team players. He has done an excellent job maintaining a stable team, and finishing in a respectable 4th place, just behind New Brighton, which will have some resonance for those with memories of the Lancashire Combination days of the 1950s.

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

In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill

Last weekend I was in the London area, in part to see Dulwich Hamlet play their final game of the regular season at Burgess Hill Town. Having seen the EvoStik League affected by matters off the field, issues at the top of the Ryman League were to be settled in the traditional manner. Bognor Regis Town went into April with the best chance on paper, being 2 points off the lead with a game in hand. When they lost to Worthing, this handed the advantage to Dulwich Hamlet, who had still to play Whitehawk, at that stage in third place. A win for Whitehawk put them in charge of their own destiny.

Some end of season games can be effectively dead, with little at stake for the teams, but this was very much alive - a win for Dulwich Hamlet could still win the title if Whitehawk were to slip up, and Burgess Hill needed to perform better than Whyteleafe to avoid finishing in a relegation position.

Whilst I did not try every roadside hostelry on the way, and with the dual carriageway A23 there are not many left, most people from my train took a sharp right out of the station to the Watermill. Suitably refreshed, I arrived at the ground to find John from the Southwark News taking notes from the team list posted outside the clubhouse. I went for the simpler expedient of taking a picture of it.

The weather people tell us this has been the wettest April for some time, and there was some concern a couple of days before the game that it may be postponed, which would have been a problem for the League, as the composition of the play off semi finals on the Tuesday depended on this and other games. Fortunately, the rain eased off, allowing the water to soak in, or not, as the water companies tell us.

The light was the worst I have seen for an afternoon game in April, I had to switch from the sports mode to shutter priority on the camera when I found I was getting shutter speeds down to 1/160s at ISO 1600, something I do not expect to need to do at this time of year. The background provided by the trees did not help.

Phil Wilson against a dark background

I took up a position by the side of the pitch to avoid the wind blowing the rain on to the front of the lens, as, despite the forecast, I had forgotten my lens hood. Still, it is good for the side on movement shots.

Kevin James

Many of our supporters thought this was our worst performance for some time - I have not seen many games, so there are plenty of which I am not aware, but the team seemed to play as though they knew the title was out of reach. Indeed it was, a whopping (for them) 287 spectators squeezing into the Enclosed Ground to see Whitehawk make sure of it by winning against Chipstead.

For the second half, the trees afforded some protection for my more usual position behind the goal.

Sanchez Ming leaves his marker horizontal

Lewis Goncalves goes for a header

With Whyteleafe winning, Burgess Hill needed a goal to retain their league status, and efficiently scored one after 80 minutes, the defeat giving Dulwich a third place finish, and a home fixture against Folkestone Invicta in the playoffs.

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