Over the hills and far away

With the weather performing the same feat for a third week in a row, namely a dry start to the week with heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday morning, there was once again no game for Prescot Cables, and therefore another rugby game for me. My options were limited, with National League 3 and below taking a week's break. Rather than having a long winter break, this seems a sensible way to organise fixtures, as it gives clubs the opportunity to play games that have had to be postponed, but avoids a long lay off when pitches are playable followed by a string of further postponements.

National League 2 had a full programme, however, so it was off to Caldy, who were at home to Otley: this blog always enjoys a visit from Yorkshirepersons. I have been before, but I was trying a new route, getting off the bus at Frankby and walking over the hill towards Thurstaston. Given that getting lost on the way to the club once spawned a whole photo project, this might have been setting the afternoon's entertainment at risk. I indeed got the timings a bit wrong, arriving about 15 minutes in to the game. No-one was posted to collect admission fees from latecomers, so I got in for free.

I am not sure what the home side did to the opposition, but they looked scary enough to me.

Both sides were keen to give us a robust game.

Both sides, but particularly Otley, made extensive use of the maul. This is when the ball is in a group of players with the ball carrier on his feet, and in this case the side with the ball uses weight of numbers to push forwards. At least, I think that is what was going on. It is a good piece of action to watch, as there is a fair amount of sheer power involved, but less useful for the photographer, as the ball tends to be hidden by the players.

Contrast where the ball is being fed back to be passed to the backs.

 It was an overcast day, the automatic white balance on the camera left the original photos looking a washed out. This can be corrected to a certain extent on the computer, but this left the players' faces with a somewhat pinkish hue, more than was actually the case despite the wind giving everyone a weathered appearance.

We saw in our last game how the law that the ball be put in straight at the scrum is to be strictly enforced - both the referee and the opposing scrum half were looking closely to see this was being done.

With Otley having had the lead for most of the game, Caldy came back with a late try and this conversion to clinch the result.

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

Final score: Caldy 26 Otley 25.