Back where I started

In the summer of 2004, I bought a new camera. I had used one before, in the 90s, but I had not persevered. I found only 3 or 4 from a roll of 36 exposures were worth showing, and I was not keen to feel around in the dark with chemicals to do my own printing, so it could always have been a better crop. There were not many opportunities to show the results either. With an incremental cost in film and developing for every shot, this seemed an expensive hobby. With digital cameras, shots can be swiftly deleted - I once had some difficulty explaining to one of our older supporters that the question "How much does the film cost?" does not have the same meaning when you can re-use the space.

So, equipped with my new toy, I was looking for somewhere to use it. For some years I have been sending reports and programmes to my friend Roger, who recruited me to the Cables interest in 1991, when he was at University and I had not long left, in much the same way as support is currently recruited amongst pharmacologists. Like these ramblings, the reports were more about the day than the football, so I thought they would benefit from illustration. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend, and Prescot were playing away at Burscough, I took the camera along.

My first sports picture I saw fit to show. From the look of the shadows, I took a while to work out it is better not to look in to the sun.

It was a compact camera, and the images were 640 x 480 pixels, but I quickly grasped the basic principles:-
1 - Point the round thing on the front in the direction of the action and press the button on the top. A lot.
2 - Make sure the duff ones never see the light of day.
I took about 40 shots, which was fine, as I only needed one or two. These days I am more keen to press the button, and with a SLR, the images are much better for cropping, but that 10% success rate remains, so I need a few hundred shots for the slide show of about 60.

I had not been back to Burscough since, as they spent most of the intervening period in a higher division than us. As there is no coach to games this close, everybody was independently travelling, although those of us who do so as a matter of course made arrangements as a group. It takes a long time to go a short distance, as the train to Southport, the most frequent service, makes 16 stops in 19 miles. The connecting service was quicker: fortunately, Northern Rail were happy to accept the tickets most of our party had been sold to add on to their Saveaways from Meols Cop without requiring we take a train that stops there.

On arrival, we took our refreshment at the Hop Vine, an outlet for some excellent beers from the Burscough Brewing Company. The only snag was that the pub is rather food oriented at lunchtime and in the evenings. The best time to be in there would be when the game is on, and we were not expecting a good result, as our hosts had recently beaten Skelmersdale United. Still, we are not easily deterred, so we squeezed through Burscough's almost unfeasibly narrow turnstiles. The home team were in all green, which, for one brought up in the seventies, made them look like 10 goalkeepers and another goalkeeper, which I am sure will make a whimsical film title one day.

Carl Furlong

As Prescot were playing all in red, all we needed was the yellow ball from the Ryman League to make a passable footballing representation of the flag of Portugal.

It quickly became clear that our performance was going to exceed our expectations. We have a young team, and I have not seen a game this year where I have had any cause to doubt their effort and commitment, but sometimes a lack of experience can tell. This was one of those occasions when everything came together. Prescot's two goals came from Jonathon Bathurst, who has been playing consistently well since returning from a 10 week break to address a recurring injury.

Jonathon Bathurst shoots for the second goal

I am something of a one photographer campaign for numbers on the front of shirts, as used in international games. Normally, this is to identify the opposition, whom I would usually only see twice a season. It can be handy when we have new players too, although by this time of the season, there is usually not more than one of our players I am seeing for the first time, such as Jason Jeffries, who had an excellent debut.

Jason Jeffries

However, there are times they would come in handy for the regular players. Here are Sean Myler and Jack Webb, joining Jonathan Bathurst celebrating his first goal.

I am just glad I am just providing the still photos after the event, not a running commentary.

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

Glorious mud

At Prescot Cables' game against Trafford in midweek, we could see what 3 weeks without rain had done to improve the pitch. It was not to last, and the underlying saturation of the ground meant any rain was going to have trouble soaking in. There was heavy rain on Friday leaving pools of standing water. Hard work by Doug Lace and his team ensured it was drained away, making the pitch playable for Saturday's game against Clitheroe, but there is not a lot you can do about the mud.

Any more heavy rain would have made the pitch unplayable, but instead, for most of the day, there was a light rain, making the surface slippery. Even a muddy pitch today is nowhere near what we saw, even in the Football League, back in the 1970s, with Derby County's Baseball Ground being particularly notable (baseball would probably have done less damage to the surface). Even our own pitch has been improved by several years of work by our ground team.

The rain was not hard enough to keep me in the stand, but I used the rain cover for the camera throughout. As I was having a spot of bother clipping it on to the viewfinder, the tempting suggestion was made that I should put the whole cover over my head, in the manner of a large format camera.

We started off with everyone looking quite clean.

Ged Murphy

The pitch was soon starting to suffer in the areas that always give us problems.

Jon Bathurst

The mud gradually transferred itself to the players...

Sean Myler

... and some were splattered like the rider of the second place in the 3.30 at Haydock.

Enzo Benn

AFC Liverpool's next 4 fixtures will take place before our next home game in 2 weeks' time, so we should hope for more dry weather. In an ideal world, it may be better not to play when the pitch is this wet, but we are at the stage of the season where we need to get fixtures completed if there is a chance of doing so. Whilst we have been fortunate in the way our fixtures have fallen to match the drier weather either side of the Pennines, AFC Liverpool, having all their games to the west, have not been so lucky, and will have their first week with three games (Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday) next week.

Flanders and Swann tell us that one of the glories of mud is that there is nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. I had no need of these properties, as the rain and wind were more than sufficient. Even with gloves and the rain cover, I was slowly losing the use of my fingers by the end of the game. Fortunately, catastrophe was averted: I did not drop my glass at the Prescot Cables Beer Festival.

I was also keeping an eye on the bench. I have not been looking much in that direction this season, the team have been playing well enough for my interest not to wander. However, our Coach, Warren Jones, wanted a picture for the website (or at least webmaster Geoff did). I might have another go this weekend to see if I can get one with the management not looking so cold, although with the weather forecast, that might not be possible.

Dave Powell and Warren Jones watch Dave Dempsey take a throw in

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

All white on the night

A good trivia question is by what name the New Zealand football team are usually known. The answer is the All Whites, the traditional black of the referee precluding their matching the country's other sports teams in their colours. A similar kit was worn by Trafford in their visit to Prescot Cables this week.

Enzo Benn challenges an unnamed Trafford player (numbers on the front of shirts - you know it makes sense)

At evening games I am pushing my consumer kit to the limit of what it will capture, and beyond what the system recommends. Not that this is the risk presented by using it in extremes of temperature or humidity, the worst that will happen in lower light than recommended is a very dark photo.

Under Prescot's floodlights, installed to give an average value of 180 lux, I am usually using a shutter speed of 1/200s in shutter priority, as slow as I can get away with to capture the action. Under these conditions, the camera chooses the maximum aperture the lens will allow: with my 70-300mm lens, this will be between f/4.5 and f/5.6. At ISO 6400 equivalent, I am usually under exposing by between 1 and 2EV. This is about the highest level of under exposure we can rescue on the computer, at the cost of some loss of detail in the darker areas, although the darker area is the sky or the trees or houses around the ground, this is not a cause for concern.

Dave Dempsey takes a throw in with the houses in Hope Street disappearing into the dark

With a player in white in the picture, the exposure indicator suggested the level of under exposure was lower, around 1/3 to 1EV. This is to be expected: white kit will reflect all the available light, and we get the full benefit of it.

Sean Myler

I noticed too, that there is some improvement in the results for our players, who were in the normal amber and black kit. I was getting an indication that the picture was likely to be under exposed by about 1/3 or 2/3EV less than I was expecting, and I got a couple of shots a bit more towards the wings than I am used to.

Joe Evans

Again, that is to be expected, even when a player in white is not in the picture, one is likely to be nearby, apart perhaps from when the goalkeeper is releasing the ball up the field, which we solve in our case by putting him in lime green.

Adam Reid

We had had no rain for about 3 weeks, which considerably improved the state of the pitch (and ensured that white kit stayed nice and reflective). This is due to the grass not being wet and slippery, and the ground being firm enough for Doug and Harry to get the tractor and its attachments on it to make some repairs to the surface.

The game was one of those that make me out of breath just following it, Trafford immediately set up a fast pace. Prescot were the first to score with a goal from Jonathon Bathurst. I was in the wrong place to get a decent picture, even with the assistance of the white kit, although it made it in to the slide show on the "goal is a goal" principle.

Jonathon Bathurst (no 10) watches his goal go in

By the second half, the main objective was to defend our lead, in which we were ultimately unsuccessful, succumbing to a goal in the 3rd minute of injury time. However, this was another point we were not expecting at the start of the game.

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

At least it's proper Yorkshire

Thus said our Church Treasurer, a Yorkshireperson, when I said I had been at Harrogate Railway Athletic the previous day. I am not sure what he counted as proper Yorkshire: he disdained places such as Halifax (we do that too), but he cannot have been casting aspersions on the whole West Riding, as Harrogate is in it - parts of the West Riding ended up in North, West, South and East Yorkshire for local government purposes.

The small but select group of independently travelling supporters took our pre match refreshment in the Montpellier Quarter of Harrogate. This hosted a number of establishments advertising themselves as a brasserie, which I thought is what they call a cash machine in Yorkshire. The first establishment we visited has a sporting link, Hales Bar having featured in Chariots of Fire. The bar has working gas jet cigar lighters, although they now just contribute to the heating, as it would be illegal to light a cigar, even to take outside before puffing away, as possession of lit tobacco comes within the definition of smoking for the smoke free legislation.

This being Lent, and my having given up meat for the duration, the selection at the tea bar can be somewhat limited - no horsey tastiness of a pie or burger for me. However, these days you more or less make up your own Lent regulations: I just avoid anything that is identifiably meat, so gravy on my chips was still in. Back when Lent regulations were more rigid, one odd exception in Germany was that beaver tails could be eaten, as they looked like fish. I am not sure whether Harrogate was ever well populated by beavers (Beverley in the East Riding derives its name from the semi aquatic rodents), but they seem to have found their way on to the club crest, and as the mascot.

I have mentioned in previous posts how sometimes we need to use the background to adjust the picture to get it straight. In this picture of Liam Hollett taking a header, we might look at the crossbar and think it is a candidate for adjustment.

It was: on the camera, there was not enough of a slope. Harrogate competes with Clitheroe for the steepest side to side slope in the division. The crossbar is 8' above the ground along its length, so sloping ground correctly means a sloping crossbar. We can just about see the breeze block wall in the background, which will usually be level (in the case of Leatherhead a bit too level). To get the angle right, I started with a wider crop, so I could line up against the houses behind the ground.

When we visited Harrogate last season, they were building a new clubhouse adjacent to both the main and training pitches, financed by selling their old clubhouse for development as a nursing home. As well as providing excellent facilities, the new developments have an unexpected bonus for the photographer, as they provide handy walls, windows and drainpipes against which to align a shot, at the end where it used to be quite difficult to get the angle right. Take this shot of Carl Furlong.

Having used the buildings, they have served our purpose, so we can crop them out.

Unusually, I had something to send to the Merseymart for each of Prescot's goals, although in each case the final shot before the goal went in did not capture the image I wanted. For the second goal from Jon Bathurst, it looks as though the defender is about to get the ball.

Although I correctly captioned this as goal no 2 on the slide show, I thought this one from a second or so before, showing Jon leaving the defenders in disarray, would be the better image for the paper, and it was indeed the one they used.

Similarly, I captured Sean Myler's debut goal for Prescot's third.

However, a shot of the featured player's back does not really work, so I again used one from a second before, not quite such clear action, but at least we can see the player's face.

Finally, Liam Dawson's first goal was scored from a few yards away from this picture, but it was close enough to go in with the caption "Liam Dawson avoids his marker for Prescot's first goal".

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