Getting the colours right

We have been fortunate this year with the weather for Prescot Cables' trips to Yorkshire. The most recent, this weekend at Ossett Albion was another such day, grey and wet in Liverpool, but clearing once the train was through the Standedge Tunnel. That part of the journey feels like crossing into Yorkshire: in local government terms it is, although the historic boundary is some miles back, near the Rising Sun in Mossley.

Albion have the more picturesque of the two grounds in Ossett. Their home, in the attractively named Dimple Wells Road, is next to the cricket ground, with views (when the mist stays away) across to Emley Moor and its television transmitter.

Ossett Albion - great television reception

When Ossett Albion announced their shirt sponsorship by the Ossett Brewery, they marketed the Tap as a sort of official away supporters' pub. In the circumstances, it would have been rude not to frequent it, but only after an excellent bacon, black pudding and egg toasted ciabatta (it is called fusion food), washed down with a pint of the excellent Old Slug (no prizes for guessing it is a porter) in the Brewer's Pride.

I was speaking at half time to a chap who was surprised to find that, although I was wearing a yellow and black scarf, I did not support the home team, and was pleased at the coincidence that we play at home in those colours. When you support a team that plays in red or blue, you are familiar with the opposition wearing "your" colour. Yellow or amber is less common, Ossett Albion are the only club in our division who wear the same shade as us, so my first thought was to look at the amber shirts, and think "That's not Ged Murphy", and "Never seen him before", as the teams came out.

Player Assistant Manager Ged Murphy - in the away kit

Once I was focusing on the correct players, we started with low sun shining across the pitch, with the stand and some trees casting a strong shadow. This has been a familiar theme in the last few posts, which I would not have expected at the beginning of the month.

James McCulloch casts a shadow

I even got about 10 minutes of shooting with the sports mode, before the shutter speeds dropped, and I had to go to shutter priority starting at 1/320s. As the sun dropped, the light became colder and whiter.

Jack Booth

A couple of years ago, on a previous visit by Prescot, the BBC shot some scenes for The Making of Arthur, a programme by the Yorkshire writer Simon Armitage about the Arthurian legend. I think Ossett was chosen because it is near one possible site for the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, but on that occasion our supporters were making the noise the film makers were looking for, especially Rod, our regular bugler. Ossett Albion supporters seem to have taken inspiration, as this time they had a group of noisily enthusiastic supporters behind the goal with a couple of instruments. They stayed behind their own goalkeeper for the second half, which seemed odd - back in the Rabble days at Dulwich Hamlet we used to call that a vote of confidence...

Albion have a straightforward floodlight arrangement with 4 pylons on each side, so it was not difficult to find a suitable place to stand, starting the half behind the goal whilst there was still some daylight ...

Callum Hoctor

... and moving to the side after about 15 minutes.

Joe Shelmerdine passes to Danny Lambert

We were disappointed not to score, but a clean sheet meant we came away with a point - and, just as importantly, as Ossett Albion are in the same half of the table as us, they only came away with one and not three.

After some leisurely post match refreshment in the Tap, it was back to Dewsbury, where my friend Nick works at the station, and was surprised to see me passing through. He was encouraging a group of drunks to leave at the time - the Transpennine Rail Ale Trail has rather outgrown its target market, particularly on Saturdays, and groups regarding it as an ordinary pub crawl are causing some problems for the railway and the Police.

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