The road to Ecmod

Eastbourne has one of England's more unusual street names, a short road on the outskirts of the town being called Ecmod Road. Those looking for the settlement to which this road may lead will search in vain: it is an abbreviation for Eastbourne Corporation Motor Omnibus Department. In 1903, Eastbourne was the first town in England to have a municipal bus service, and to commemorate this, the burghers named a road in its honour.

I have always enjoyed visiting Eastbourne, it was the nearest resort to where I grew up, and the only town on the coast with a direct bus service from East Grinstead. My mother preferred to take me there in the summer, although I saw a few hardy families on this visit well wrapped up against the weather. There is something to be said for fish and chips in the teeth of a howling gale, although when the proprietor of the shop on the Pier asked me whether I would be eating my haddock indoors or taking away, I decided her tables looked more inviting than doing battle with the wind and seagulls outside.

Eastbourne Town play at The Saffrons, a large sports field shared with cricket, hockey and bowls, with each sport having their own pavilion facilities, although the hockey club has the best bar. From the sign over the football club turnstiles, it appears the ground was laid out for sport on the eve of the First World War.

Snow had been forecast, but it did not materialise as more than a few flakes. I had been expecting a wind whipping off the sea, but found something colder, wind coming off the land. For the first half Dulwich were playing towards the Meads Road end, which is completely open. My running gloves do not have much effect in this weather, but my proper gloves do not give the fngertip control you need to take pictures.

This was my first sight of the new away kit, sponsored by the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Trust.

Nyren Clunis in the new kit - tasteful and well stitched

The goalkeeper's kit looked a bit shiny, I was a bit concerned what might happen to the electricity supply if he were to accidentally touch the goalpost.

Phil Wilson

I did not think to go down the pitch for a warm, and to get some of the players from an angle where I could see their numbers. As this is only the second time I have watched Dulwich Hamlet this season, I only know the players who have been in the side for some time, for the rest I rely on catching them with their back to me - numbers on the front of shirts, you know it makes sense.

Eastbourne's seats take up the full width of what may be called the pavilion end, so for the second half I took up a position by the corner flag, the stand providing some shelter from the wind. The floodlights were switched on for the last 20 minutes or so, although I am not sure why, it did not seem that dark, sunset was not until about 5.20, and I saw no need to bring to mind my little diagrams. I think an EvoStik League referee would have been content with natural light throughout, and they use the white ball all year. It's grim up north.

Xavier Vidal, pictured towards the end of the game

Having watched Prescot Cables playing well over the last few weeks but not producing the goods in front of goal, I was looking forward to a more assured performance from Dulwich Hamlet, on a 20 game unbeaten run in all competitions. It was just my luck that I found a Dulwich side struggling to cope with a bumpy pitch that did not suit their passing game against an in form Eastbourne side who ended up 2-0 winners. Meanwhile, back in Prescot, the hard work of the previous few weeks paid off, with a 3-2 win against Lancaster City.

A few days after commenting that almost all footballers place the dead ball in a way to risk putting their backs out, even with something as light as a football, here is Erhun Öztümer using his knees as recommended by the ergonomics people - not only knocking in the goals both from set pieces and open play, but demonstrating best practices for back health too!

Erhun places the ball ...

... and takes the corner

After the game, it was off to the Counting House in the Old Town (much nearer the station than I thought), which, unusually for a pub in the Good Beer Guide, had only one real ale on. This was a most acceptable Signature, from the 1648 Brewing Co., so called because the King's Head in East Hoathly, where the brewery is located, owns a copy of the death warrant of King Charles I.

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

Placing the ball

Having gained a point from local rivals Warrington Town at the weekend, Prescot Cables entertained Skelmersdale United in midweek, in a game postponed from New Year's Day. Like Warrington's Shaun Reid, Tommy Lawson left us to take charge at Skelmersdale, but the similarity ends there, as Tommy took us to the North West Counties League Cup and League Championship first.

Adam Reid

This was our fourth game against Skelmersdale this season, and none have been profitable on the field. As one was in the Liverpool Senior Cup on a wet night and left the pitch unusable for a month, I suspect it was far from profitable off it too. This was the first evening game I have attended since then. The the only other opportunity I had to do so was away at Bamber Bridge, which I chose to miss, as I would have had to leave.before the end to get the last train home, which, along with leaving home before the result of a pitch inspection, is my main reason for missing away games.

As I discuss frequently in these pages, taking pictures with consumer kit under floodlights involves compromises. Having said that, newer SLR cameras, such as the Nikon D5100 and D5200, offer an ISO range up to 6400, expandable to 25600, two steps up from my D5000's 3200 expandable to 6400, so when the time comes to upgrade, the low light performance should be even better. The compromise extends to whether to include a picture in the collection, such as this one.

We can clearly see this is Liam Hollett, which is probably an essential prerequisite. However, it is a little blurred, and I would probably not have included it if Liam had been playing a ball at his feet, but getting a foot to a ball at waist height gives it the interest to get into the slideshow.

Watching both football and rugby, I have noticed an odd difference, in the way players place the ball for a free kick or penalty. Here is Anthony Shinks on Tuesday.

Here, by contrast, is Alex Davies, playing for Waterloo at the time I took the picture in 2008, but now playing in the Premiership for London Welsh. It is one of my earlier efforts, and still one of my favourite photos. We can also use it to remind us of a warmer day.

Anthony is bending his back, like almost all footballers. Alex is bending his knees like the ergonomics people tell you - with some justification, I was once hobbling around for a few days after putting out the bit where your back becomes your backside picking up a telephone box. Not one of those red Giles Gilbert Scott affairs, but a cardboard box with a desk telephone in, weighing about the same as a football. I do not recall seeing a rugby player doing it any other way. Placing a rugby ball is a more precise operation, as the angle matters, either on the tee, or a few years ago in a dent made in the ground with the boot.

As is usual with these fixtures, we were watching former players playing for the opposition, in this case Rob McIntosh and Dale Wright. I have always enjoyed watching Rob play, and he and Dale have always conducted themselves impeccably visiting their former club. However, when he was a bit younger and playing for us, I had trouble not depicting Rob as all arms and legs. It is a bit easier these days, but the ball does not always co-operate.

Rob McIntosh meets René Magritte

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

Is there a Doctor in the house?

The match sponsorship for Prescot Cables' game at home to Warrington Town at the weekend was paid for by staff and students from the University of Liverpool Pharmacology Department in the name of regular supporter Phil, an energetic recruiter of new spectators, who has successfully completed his PhD. These pages are a stickler for etiquette, so we can only start calling him Dr Phil when he has donned the robes and shaken hands with the Chancellor. For the same reason, I shall refrain until then from asking him to take a look at my dodgy knee.

In these times, people are a bit concerned about mentioning pharmacology and sport in the same sentence, but we need not be worried. Phil has shown synopses of a couple of his papers online, and they seem to be, as far as I understood a word, about pharmacological markers for alcohol induced liver damage, not so much performance enhancing, as coping with the end of season party.

Our match sponsor (in bar scarf) watches Jack Webb

A match against Warrington Town is always a good one to sponsor, with a keen local rivalry, especially as it was their first visit to Hope Street since our former manager, Shaun Reid, left after 8 games in charge to take Warrington into the Football League.

Shaun Reid in characteristic pose

Shaun Reid's brother, Peter Reid was also in the crowd. Richie, our leader on pub and beer choices for away games, asked Peter to tweet that he was going to be at Prescot Cables in the way he does when he visits better known locations. He kindly did so, resulting in at least one enquiry from a family about admission prices.

Also in the crowd was the star of last season's Liverpool Senior Cup heroics, and scorer of some useful league goals, Steven Tames, playing in the same colours, but now with Southport, whose game away to Braintree Town had been postponed.

Steven Tames (in grey) and Dave Powell watch Jon Bathurst in action

This was always going to be a competitive game with honour at stake, Warrington wanting a win to keep their play off challenge on track, Prescot wanting to take at least a point from our former manager, and all points are useful to keep us ahead of Goole, Garforth and Ossett Albion.

As this post has a study theme, I can record that I arrived in Liverpool for that purpose many years ago, and have remained ever since. One of our new players, Enzo Benn, has followed at least the first part of that path, having come from Brighton, where he played along the coast for Worthing, initially playing for Cammell Laird before joining us.

Enzo Benn

The first half was played in sunlight, with the usual challenges that the low winter sun provides. The cloud came over for the second half, making for a much more even light. As I was able to take my usual position behind the goal, so when the Prescot goal came, I was in a good position to capture Liam Dawson scoring it. I had a choice of two images to send in to the Merseymart.

I chose the first one, as it shows better that Liam scored the goal under pressure from the Warrington defender, and there is less open space, which does not look good on the printed page.

As it was, they had a space to fill that would not have taken the portrait format, so they used this one of Luke Edwards instead.

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

Rush goalie

When I was at junior school, we would often agree, or the teacher would tell us, that the goalkeeper in a game of football was to be "rush", allowed to roam outfield to play, or "stick", remaining in a settled position between the posts or jumpers. Such a distinction is unknown in the Laws of Association Football, any goalkeeper may have a Jimmy Glass moment. Most remain firmly in place, and their clothing has reflected this by being warmer than that of the other players, from the woollen jerseys and flat caps of an earlier era to today's modern fabrics.

I suspect that when Garforth Town's goalkeeper Chris Senior had an age in single figures, he had a preference for rush, which he seems to have sustained into adult life, as he took a number of forays some distance outside his area. He was cutting it fine releasing the ball at the edge of the area as well, with some encouragement from the crowd to the assistant referee to keep an eye in case he overstepped.

Garforth's Chris Senior gets involved in the outfield with Ryan Grattan and Marlin Piana

Having had games postponed due to the weather, having missed a game due to what I thought the weather would be, and games mainly under overcast skies, it was welcome to have some sunshine. Low winter sun makes it almost impossible to take pictures behind the goal at the Safari Park End. The hood takes care of surplus light falling on the lens, but even wearing a cap, the glare means I cannot see much that is going on through the viewfinder. So, I beat a retreat to the sidelines.

Ryan Grattan approaches Chris Senior in a more conventional position

Even the photo on the back page of the Merseymart looked brighter than for a few weeks - they used this one of Cables' goal scorer, Luke Edwards, although the text went over the Garforth player on the right (numbers on the front of shirts, you know it makes sense).

Luke Edwards

Not many clubs have ball boys at this level, so we do not have the contretemps seen at Swansea a couple of weeks ago, although I was watching Dulwich Hamlet in a cup game at the then Lymington & New Milton a few years ago when the home goalkeeper came flying across the pitch perimeter fence and pushed one of our supporters to the ground in his rush to retrieve the ball for a goal kick. Sometimes people can be a bit too helpful returning the ball to the pitch without noticing play has restarted with another one.

Ged Murphy deals with the unwanted ball whilst Dave Dempsey plays the proper one

The clear sky and sunset about 5 minutes after the end of the game meant that, to my surprise, we completed the game in natural light, 2 weeks earlier than the first game to do so last season. Some referees would have asked for the lights to be switched on for the last few minutes, but by the time they warmed up to full intensity, the game would have finished. Also, the light was better than an evening game under lights, I was getting good results at 1/250s right to the end, which is not usually the case in the evening.

Jon Bathurst returns from injury

With a much needed 3 points from the game, the only disappointment was the crowd. At 97, this was the first crowd below 100 we have had at home both this season and last.

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