To arrive is better than to travel hopefully

I let out a sigh when I learnt Lancashire's game against Cheshire in the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup was to be held at Sedgely Park. That is most unfair on the club: I have visited on a number of occasions, they are well run, with excellent facilities including a stand. A visit would be fine if I could just get from home to the ground without having to actually travel between the two.

My main dislike about this trip in the rain that always seems to fall when I go there is the 20 minute walk from public transport, with no pubs or shops in which to shelter along the way. Well, there are, but once you reach them you may as well carry on 100 yards to the ground. I have always got the bus to the start of this walk, but with the aid of Mr Google and the walking routes on his maps, I found it is only a couple of minutes further to the tram, so I could take advantage of the tram's shorter journey time. Users of Manchester's trams will recognise the flaw in this, and even finding the journey time takes some research; they do not publish timetables, so you have to get it by stealth on the Traveline website.

I wanted to look something up in the Library and an exhibition looked interesting in the Art Gallery, so it seemed logical to get a tram from St Peter's Square. Unfortunately, the planned closure of the whole southern half of the system is an insignificant enough event for Metrolink not to put it anywhere obvious on their website, so I walked in the pouring rain to Piccadilly Gardens. The confirm button on the ticket machine should say "You've just missed one, are you sure you do not want to get the bus?", as the reduced frequency on the Bury line, for more engineering works "while we make Victoria Posh", more or less cancels out the journey time advantage.

Having got as wet as I could, there seemed little point using the stand, so I sheltered in the clubhouse porch to get the cover on the camera, then took up position on the other side of the pitch. My friend Jon wondered a few weeks ago whether there might be mileage in a combined monopod and umbrella: I thought the concept was reasonable, but there would be practical issues, particularly how to avoid the water going all over the camera when you put the umbrella down.

It was a grey day, with one side playing in shirts that look grey from a distance.

With the wet conditions, both ball and ground were slippery, so there was a lot of kicking, with associated lineouts and catches in open play.

I did not manage to get a picture of a rare dropped goal, from Cheshire's Richard Vasey. This is probably the most difficult way to score, taking considerable skill with the opposition bearing down on you, so it is usually better to go forward for a possible seven points from a try and conversion, rather than an uncertain three points.

Conditions improved in the second half, as the rain eased off, and I was tempted to put my coat and hat on the perimeter fence to dry. That turned out not to be a good idea, as it started to rain again, and I needed to put them back on, which made me feel even wetter. On the field, the ball looked easier to handle.

At 70 minutes, Lancashire were 12-19 behind, enough for a losing bonus point, which would be needed to stay level in the table with Yorkshire, who had scored a fourth try at Northumberland, with Lancashire's big win two weeks ago giving a superior points difference. However, in the last few seasons Lancashire have made good use of substitutions, and are good at coming back from behind in the last few minutes. It proved to be so again, with tries from Adam Lewis (converted by Chris Johnson) and Warren Spragg putting qualification for the Final beyond doubt.

Now, this blog is quite traditionally minded, so I enjoyed this sequence - it looks very much like a good old fashioned dive pass!

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

Final score: Lancashire 25 (T Rawlings, Lewis, Spragg; C Johnson 2; P Johnson 2), Cheshire 19