Under the weather

The August Bank Holiday is a traditional time for clubs to play some of their more local games. This year, the bank holiday came after the the FA Cup Preliminary round, so there was the risk these fixtures would fall to Cup replays or postponements. The EvoStik League First Division North seemed to be particularly affected, partly due to waterlogged pitches on Saturday, with only three league games surviving.

Prescot Cables were at home to Cammell Laird after the exertions of the FA Cup game against AFC Liverpool at the weekend. The game survived a midday pitch inspection after heavy rain in the morning. Even so, conditions were still soft and slippery.

James McCulloch

Prescot were playing in the in normal amber home kit, as we did on Saturday against AFC Liverpool, so a mention is on order for Nick Arnold, who has taken over as kit man this season for having it all washed, dried and ready for use over a bank holiday weekend.

As with all local games, there was the usual collection of players who have played for us in the past.  Among them was John Riley, who I thought did not get the games his talents deserved when he was on our books, so it has been good to see him becoming established at Cammell Laird. Between him and Prescot's Davidson Banda, a player of similar pace and tenacity made for some good pictures.

Davidson Banda and John Riley

The conditions started dull and overcast, and went downhill from there, with the second half being completed in heavy rain.

When you have somewhere to shelter it makes for a good picture, but I do not envy the players being out in it.

Jack Webb

Cammell Laird made the best of the conditions with a couple of quick goals early in the second half, to which, despite a couple of shots on target, Prescot were unable to reply.

It was a disappointing result, against a team with whom, realistically, we are competing to ensure league survival, but it is still early in the season - the next test comes at the weekend with the first game against some industrial sized Yorkshirepersons at Ossett Town.

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

Away in the Cup

For many of us, the FA competitions provide a chance to visit clubs that we might not otherwise see. An away draw will have us poring over maps, timetables and the Good Beer Guide. Come the day, off we go, all tin hat and Dunkirk spirit, to some settlement clinging to a hill the other side of Huddersfield. It is all good fun, with the only disadvantage being that the Good Beer Guide is published in September, so we can be out of the Cup before the new Guide comes out.

So, it was with a certain sense of anticipation that Prescot Cables approached the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup. We were drawn away to the winner of the tie between AFC Blackpool, familiar from our time in the North West Counties League as Blackpool Mechanics, and AFC Liverpool. With AFC Liverpool winning, that meant a trip to, er, Hope Street, our home. So, off to the match on the number 10 bus it was.

AFC Liverpool's flags and banners on display

Playing away at your own ground is a rare, and potentially dislocating experience, with different people on the turnstiles, different stewards and different announcements over the tannoy, although we provide the bar and catering facilities. The match officials joined in - about 99% of referees take the diagonal from right back to right back, with the assistants on the opposite diagonal. However, it is up to the referee, and the officials today decided to work the other way round.

With two local games over the weekend, there would be a few of our former players playing for the opposition. In this game, the one that caught my eye was Steve Williams, one of my favourite players from when I started to take pictures, as his running style and willingness to challenge for the ball always guaranteed a good image.

Steve Williams

As a landlord v tenant local derby, this was never going to be a game for the purist, with the game being settled by a single goal from James Thomas, who we found out later had already picked up an injury by the time he scored. The term "up and under" is more familiar in rugby league, but this goal probably qualified as such. James gets a foot to the ball - the goalkeeper is outside the penalty area, so if he uses his hands, the rest of the afternoon will be his own ... 

 ... up ...

 ... and under - and in the goal. You can see the pitch markings in this shot.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the focus is on the goalkeeper, which was not entirely intentional. This was the picture I sent in to the Liverpool Echo for the Merseymart - they put it on the back page, and cropped it so the outfield player was mostly cut out and the goalkeeper was in the top left corner of the picture.

Our record at holding on to a 1-0 lead has not been good over the last few seasons, so we were in for a nervous second half. The effect of seeing the game through a small rectangular window, and operating precision electronic equipment, can be a certain sense of detachment. However, by the end I was finding it difficult to remain calm, and was pointing the big round thing on the front of the camera in the direction of the action and fairly indiscriminately pressing the button on the top, which makes for a lot of shots finding their way to the bin, but some made it through.

The results can be seen here.

Travelling hopefully and arriving

To the passenger who is lucky enough to get in and out in a few minutes, Manchester Piccadilly station can seem a model of light and efficiency. However, spending any longer soon brings to light its deficiencies. A small delay in the incoming service, a cancellation, and non interchangeable fares between Manchester and the two New Mills stations, meant that hour earmarked for a pub terrace looking at the Derbyshire scenery was instead spent waiting by an open sewer. Up north, there is still a high proportion of trains with toilets that decant on to the track. The toilets on the concourse charge, so passengers use those on trains waiting in the station. Using Piccadilly late in the evening on a hot day is not an edifying experience.

Fortunately, you do not need to go far out of Manchester to get to the scenery - and fresh air. Even around places like Romiley, which a friend who lives there had assured me was fairly urban, the hills looked only a short walk away. New Mills claim the most picturesque ground in the League, a claim with some justification.

The game was on a Monday night, which is quite unusual, Tuesday has become an almost universal midweek match night. Although it is only 43 miles from Prescot, it takes longer than you might expect to get there, so we were missing some players from Saturday due to work commitments. This is inevitable with an amateur squad, Dave Powell is keen to have options for all positions. Some players who impressed in pre season therefore made their first appearance of the League campaign.

Joel Igenoza

Davison Banda

The pitch had a distinct slope, which I think players are less used to dealing with than 20 years ago. FA regulations and modern earth moving machinery make a new ground with a slope unthinkable. New Mills demonstrated how to make use of it in the first half, keeping possession and making the ball do the work going uphill, and making us do the work following it.

They also did something I have never seen in a game before, but which worked well. About 20 minutes into the game, they turned the floodlights on, but for the first 20 minutes only on one side. This was the south westerly side, where the remaining sun was blocked by the stand and a row of trees, and the result was an even light over the whole pitch, with the sun still reaching the north easterly side. This picture of Cables' Jack Webb was taken at 1/320s, and needed very little adjustment to the lighting.

For the second half the lights gave a wide band of light down the middle of the pitch, so, unusually for a night game, I was taking pictures behind the goal. I was therefore able to catch a few well lit goalmouth shots, like this one of Luke Edwards getting his head to the ball for Prescot's goal before New Mills' goalkeeper could get a hand to it.

I was particularly pleased to capture the next moment, when they (especially the goalkeeper) appear to hover in the air to watch it go in.

It was a disappointing night, with what looked as though it would be a point falling to a late new Mills goal. The disappointment was tempered for me, however, as I won the half time raffle.

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

Goooooal!

It is not often that scoring a goal merits a title of a post, even one like that scored by Prescot Cables Jonathon Bathurst in the opening minutes of their game at home to Radcliffe Borough. However, this was our first goal on the opening day of the season since a win away at North Ferriby United in 2007, which, coincidentally, was the first game for which I published photos on the web.

This was the photo I sent in to the Liverpool Echo for their Merseymart supplement (more of that later).

Jonathon Bathurst beats the keeper

This is what happened next.

Keep calm and carry on

Our programme editor has gone for a cover design with text to one side and a photo next to it, so there was a portrait format picture for his consideration too.

Tap in to the net

It was a bright sunny day, the sort we expect, but this year did not look likely to get, for the start of the season. This brings its own lighting challenges, and I thought a few of the photos were looking a bit contrasty (is that a real word?), and may have benefited from conversion to black and white. A decent image in black and white depends on a contrast in the teams' kits, e.g. one in white and the other in a colour, or one in plain and the other in stripes. Looking from the front, this was possible at this game, with Radcliffe in blue and black stripes.

However, when the Radcliffe player has his back to the camera, we encounter the plain back - a plain panel for the number is useful, but I see no need for it to take up most of the back.

The end result is two plain colours, which never works as well in black and white.

With new faces to identify at this time of year, I would welcome an innovation trickling down from international level - numbers on the front of the shirt. Some clubs have numbers on shorts, but this is not universal, and it makes the job of the kit man harder, as shorts need to be matched with shirts when they come back from the laundry. Often they are more to the side of the shorts, so not always easy to see when the player is facing the camera.

I mentioned at the beginning that I had sent a picture in for the Merseymart. We are in competition for column inches with our tenants, AFC Liverpool of the North West Counties League. We have come out well in the half season since the Echo relaunched the Merseymart, and I like to think the photos help, along with excellent match reports from our Press Officer, Richard Quinn.

However, there are times AFC Liverpool do something newsworthy that gets them the space, which was the case this weekend, when they lost 8-1 at Winsford United. I am happy to trade the back page of the paper for a point on the opening day against one of the teams tipped for a play off place.

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

Auto focus with a limited attention span

This weekend saw what has become in recent years Prescot Cables' traditional last pre season game against Marine. There has been competition (not to mention regular movement of players) between the clubs for many years, although for most of the Pyramid era, they have been a division or two above us.

Prescot's pre season programme seems to have been very much about exploring options, discovering combinations of players that work well. The squad is therefore still quite large, and I suspect likely to remain so to have cover for all positions. Very few players have played in all of the pre season games, so I am still not sure who will start the season. A couple of players have been in most of the games - top scorer in pre season, James Thomas (who features more in a moment), and James McCulloch.

James McCulloch

There was still the opportunity to bring in new faces.

Joe Fielding

I think most would agree that auto focus is a wonderful thing, especially for fast moving sports like football and rugby, as it works much more quickly and accurately than anything the photographer can do manually. However, it sometimes seems to have the attention span of a gnat. Take this free kick for Prescot's goal.

The ball is in nice sharp focus as James "Smiler" Thomas takes a free kick ...

... keeping a close eye as it goes over the wall ...

 ... still sharp as Marine goalkeeper Ryan McMahon makes a move ...

 ... but he cannot get to it and ... ooh, there's Dave from Football Editorial - wonder what camera he is using ... what do you mean "goal"?

Still, as the principle remains on this blog, a goal is a goal, and this is just the sort of goal for which we keep Smiler on the books, getting us back from a goal down, which would be a valuable point in a league game.

For Dave Smithson's view of the game and some comments from Cables Manager Dave Powell, click here.

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

I'm sure it's not supposed to crunch when you do that

That is what I have been saying for 30 years when I rotate my left arm. As the occasional discomfort in the shoulder (usually in damp weather) started when I was 14, and has got neither better nor worse since, I have never regarded it as a cause for concern.

However, my 70-300mm zoom lens has recently been making a sound as if something is not engaging, at the 300mm end of the range, which suggests it may be developing a fault. Not that I can complain, I have subjected it to a level of usage many would not normally reach. I took it to a repair shop, where the helpful, if lugubrious, assistant was confident that the issue was with the Vibration Reduction (VR) unit.

VR is a wonderful thing, but not particularly relevant for sport. As a rough rule of thumb, you start to have a problem with the shake from hand holding the camera at a shutter speed slower than 1/focal length. VR provides additional stabilisation, allowing crisp images to be captured up to 4 shutter speed settings slower, and it works, I have taken pictures at 1/125s at 300mm. However, I rarely use speeds that slow taking sports action, we can get away with 1/200s, but any slower will usually not freeze enough of the action.

So, when shooting sports I usually turn the VR off. That does not isolate it, and when it goes wrong, it er, vibrates - fortunately only for half a second, after which I can focus normally. After talking to the man in the shop, I decided to see how it develops, as the remedy in any event is to replace the VR unit, which is quite expensive.

It was with my equipment thus impaired that I set off to Prescot Cables' home international friendly against Flint Town United of the Huws Gray Alliance. The weather was much more like we would expect on a summer evening than last week.

Davison Banda

Andy McCoy

With the mixture of bright sunshine and long shadows, the Auto ISO really comes into its own, with lighting conditions varying in a single run or pass.

At this time of year, every week brings sunset 10 - 12 minutes earlier, so the floodlights came on for the second half.

Luke Edwards

With the natural light assisted by the lights early in the half, I did not manage to get rid of a slightly pink hue, but later on, I got the results we expect under the lights.

Matty Parker

I also spoke with our programme editor, Paul Watkinson, who explained that we have new printers this year, which allows a different picture on the cover for each game if we wish, so I will be providing some pictures for that. Paul very wisely (from his point of view) persuaded me to send 2 or 3 from which to choose, in the same way I do with the Liverpool Echo. We will look at the requirements for the programme cover in more detail in a future post, I think it will be a bit different from the paper, whose priority is to have a picture to go with the words, and can be summed up as: 1 - goals, 2 - goal scorers, 3 anything else.

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

On the shores of an orange canal

The name of the Staffordshire town of Kidsgrove suggests a scene of baby goats gambolling amongst the trees, so I was pleased when I arrived and found just that - on Kidsgrove Athletic's club badge.

Pre season friendly games are usually a mixture of visiting opponents in lower divisions and entertaining sides from higher up the Pyramid. Kidsgrove, however, having been Prescot Cables' regular competitors in the North West Counties League, play at the same level as us, in the EvoStik League Division 1 South. Where it is geographically practical, playing a club at the same level makes sense, as it gives the players a test against the sort of opposition they will face in the regular season.

Last week I had to negotiate the bus fare, but this trip was all by train, so that should be simpler. The ticket machine offered me an Anytime Return for £14.40. However, this being Saturday, an Off Peak Return was also available - for £14.70.

The history page on the club's website tells us the club was founded in the Blue Bell Inn, which is in the Good Beer Guide, so it seemed rude not to pop in. When I am travelling on my own, I prefer my refreshment after the game, but the pub is closed in the early evening, so I called in on my way to the ground.

The ground is unusual at this level in having seats and some cover on all four sides, so I could sit and get the lens that couple of feet lower for most of the game. The sun was good for photos, although not so good for the Prescot players, as it was behind the goal Prescot were attacking for the first half, and had moved round to the side for the second, giving a slight advantage to a team that wins the toss and chooses ends wisely.

By this time in the pre season, a team is well on the way to emerging, and I start to remember the names of new players who have played in for most of the games, and look likely to be included in the manager's plans for the season (cue someone pointing out I have got a name wrong).

Joe Evans keeps Kidsgrove's keeper busy

Andy McCoy

A favourite for many supporters is back in training.

Paul Cliff

The game was an encouraging draw against a club that finished just outside the playoff places last season, with a first half goal from Kidsgrove cancelled out by James Thomas in the second.

You do not often see the goalkeeper heading the ball, but Stephen Longrigg is quite prepared to come off his line to deal with a threat, and occasionally finds himself in a situation where hands are unavailable.

Like most non League supporters, this blog does not feel the need to wear the latest kit, and is in favour of re-using a t-shirt ...

The Management keep a close eye on play

... but we would rather not remember where we finished that season!

Finally, an explanation for the title of this post. The quickest way from the station to the Blue Bell is the towpath of the Trent & Mersey Canal, whose water here has a rusty hue, caused by underground iron deposits leaching into the water from James Brindley's abandoned Harecastle Tunnel, the later Thomas Telford tunnel on the left being still in use.

Harecastle Tunnels

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

November - in July

One of the least promising times to photograph football is on a wet November afternoon. The light seems not to have got going all day, and fades even more as the game is going on. You are using a high ISO setting all the way through, and the photos in the collection are those that made their way through the gloom. With the weather we have had recently, this is not a bad description of a July evening, with the addition of warm(ish) air and rain making for an unpleasant humidity as well.

Such were the conditions for Prescot Cables' first home friendly of the season, against Vauxhall Motors. I quickly abandoned the sports mode on the camera and went for shutter priority, straight to 1/250s without trying something higher. I took refuge from the rain in the stand, with its high view across the pitch, which I think is probably better for video than still photography, although for both types it provides a view most clubs do not have.

The performance from both teams was better than the conditions. Prescot took an early lead from James Thomas...

James Thomas shoots for Prescot's goal

...who kept the camera busy with frequent runs to goal, and more importantly kept the Vauxhall goalkeeper busy at the end of them.

On a bright night at this time of year, one might hope to avoid turning the floodlights on until the middle of the second half, but it was apparent half way through the first half that they would be needed.

Results from the end of the game, when I had taken up position beneath the cover at the Hope Street end, were similar to those on a night much later in the year.

Being the first home friendly, many supporters were seeing Dave Powell's team for the first time, and comments suggest that they were pleasantly surprised. Despite conceding not long after our own goal, the team kept a Vauxhall side that their manager said was mainly first team players with a couple of triallists to a draw.

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

What was your name again?

Thus enquired a Buckley Town player of one of his team mates in Prescot Cables' pre season game at the weekend. The question was not confined to the home team: I watched the second half from where the Prescot substitutes were warming up, and introductions were going on there too. Observant readers may have noticed a lack of captions in the last couple of posts for the same reason.

Some players are familiar from the previous season, such as the agile Brian Pilkington.

For the last few seasons for Prescot have played an international friendly. Wales is not as international as some places - the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Team were spending the weekend playing the supporters of Altona 93 in Hamburg. However, it has caught out the odd English club in the past, who have not read the page in their League handbooks where it reminds them that players whose last club was under the jurisdiction of the Football Association of Wales need international clearance to play in England. Unless you attract the attention of the Prime Minister, failure to comply results in a points deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

One of the hazards of travelling independently (particularly when planning to pop in to the local ruined castle on the way) is negotiating the maze of local bus fares. Operators do not always help: Arriva's map of their North West (of England) area is a bit vague as to how much is included across the border. Mold appears to be in, and the driver confused me by suggesting all of North Wales was included (it isn't), although maps issued in Chester may have "here be dragons" somewhere near Gwernaffield. Had I used their "bus tickets 2 ur mobile" application, I would have probably overpaid by getting a ticket that includes the coast.

Buckley play in the Huws Gray Alliance (leagues seem to like names other than "League", but, as Prescot played for many years in the Lancashire Combination, I cannot complain). The Alliance attracts similar crowds to the EvoStik League, but ground grading requirements are not as strict. For example, the fence does not need to prevent viewing of the game from outside the ground, which means a view can be obtained from inside across into England and the Cheshire Plain, and the steam from the Stanlow Oil Refinery.

Looking around the ground, it seemed that Buckley are keen to progress to the Welsh Premier League, as there was ample evidence of improvements in progress - new turnstiles waiting to be installed, and a newly concreted area that looked as though it was being prepared for covered standing, in addition to the two fairly new prefabricated stands already installed.

The pleasant weather seemed to have had an effect, as this was a much better performance than in the humidity at Wigan in midweek.

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