Battle of the Vikings

It is not often I attend a game as a genuine neutral. Even at a club I do not usually watch, I tend to support my local team. However, on the basis of an unduly pessimistic weather forecast, I decided not to travel to Scarborough for Lancashire's County Championship rugby union game against Yorkshire, but went to Caldy for Cheshire's game against Northumberland. Both sides lost the previous week, against Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively, so I was not looking for a result to help my side (apart possibly from a highly unlikely low scoring draw).

The Wirral has a strong Viking heritage. Nearby Thingwall includes Þingvöllr, its name in Old Norse, on the signs at the village boundary. Northumberland of course has a Viking connection too, and some players looked the part.

Cheshire had made a good choice of venue for the weather conditions. As it was a bright sunny day, one of the warmest of the year so far, the Dee Estuary provided a welcome breeze.

The comments from the Caldy Chairman in the programme referred to the "open air grandstand", which saw good use.

Some spectators were ready to pounce if the ball came out of play.

The less populated open side provided an ideal vantage point, with the sun directly behind me, so I had no problems with shadows. I did not need to worry about shutter speeds, with the sports mode selecting 1/1600 or 1/2000s. With its also selecting ISO 400, that gave an aperture around f/8. This is narrower than under most conditions, so there is a greater depth of field, which was handy for the pictures illustrating the crowd. In future, I shall try increasing the shutter speed (I can go as fast as 1/4000s) or decreasing the ISO to 200 and see if I can get some shallow depth of field on a bright day.

University players are not common in this competition, not least because of the time of year coinciding with examinations, but Northumberland scrum half Tom Banks of Newcastle University had a good game last week, and looked like doing so again this week, but unfortunately sustained an injury that ended his afternoon after about half an hour.

Being present in a non partisan capacity meant I did not feature one side's players over the other in the final slide show. This is in any event not as clear cut in rugby as in football. In the latter, I concentrate on when our own players have the ball, whereas in rugby a player tackling makes for just as good a picture.

For the individual shots of players running, kicking or passing, my selection was quite even.

Having watched these games for a few years, I recognise some players, although they do not always turn up where I expect them. Qualification for the competition can come from being born in the county (generally following historic boundaries), living there, or playing for a member club of the County RFU. The latter two can change, so, for example, having seen James Smith playing as a replacement scrum half for Lancashire last season, we see him this season fulfilling the same function for Cheshire.

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

Final score: Cheshire 35, Northumberland 31.