Roses in the sun

Last weekend saw Lancashire host Yorkshire in the rugby union County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup. The game was at Fylde: as 11 of the starting XV play there, it made sense. It is easy to get to, and this year the Blackpool South train had a couple of extra wagons, er, I mean carriages. Timetable changes made for a less convenient arrival time, but Fylde's excellent catering meant I could have lunch when I got there. I feel when attending rugby union that using the right cutlery matters, so the question is, should one eat the chilli with a fork or a spoon? A savoury dish suggests the former, but the latter will get the last of the rice from the polystyrene dish.

The Met Office app promised sunny intervals: the weather turned out better, with almost continuous sun.

Results earlier in the competition meant that the winner would go through to the final.

There was a good crowd, drawn by the weather and plenty of publicity. Oddly, Lancashire seemed only to start publicising the competition in earnest for the second game, against Durham: the first, at Chester, seemed very low key.

I took up position on the stand side, towards the end Lancashire were attacking, where I could look out from the shade. The hedge would have fallen foul of football ground grading authorities, who like the ground perimeter fence (they are not keen on hedges) to prevent viewing the game from outside the ground, and there were definite gaps. Not that I was planning to take pictures from the pavement.

These fixtures are robust affairs.

Penalty scores play a greater part in rugby union than in football or rugby league. Some attribute this to the points available for a penalty kick and a converted try. The points available may encourage a team to kick, but some suggest the points for a converted try may give an incentive to risk an infringement, sacrificing three points rather than a possible seven. A penalty try can also be given where an infringement prevents a try being scored. Yorkshire opened the scoring in this manner: Lancashire responded with a penalty kicked by Christopher Johnson.

In a game like this, there is always the risk of injury, and Chris was replaced shortly afterwards by Steve Collins.

A try from an individual run is good for a picture, this from Jordan Dorrington took Lancashire ahead just before half time.

I decided to stay put after half time, as it was the quietest part of the ground. With Lancashire, as is often the case, having the better of both possession and territory for the second half, my results were not as good as in the first, although I was close to some moves being built out of defence.

Further tries from Ryan de la Harpe and Chris Briers and another from Jordan Dorrington gave Lancashire a commanding lead. Jordan Dorrington was subsequently selected for the England Counties squad to tour Romania.

The game continued to keep the physios busy. Spare a thought for Yorkshire's replacement scrum half, Isaac Green, seen here watching Ryan de la Harpe putting the ball in to a scrum - within three or four minutes of coming on, he had to leave the field after an injury.

Lancashire's win took them to their seventh successive final. I did not realise I had been following the competition for that long: it seemed like only a couple of years ago seeing Yorkshire go through to the final at Harrogate and sitting opposite Alex Davies and James Doherty on the train back to Leeds - Alex and James went on to have successful careers at London Welsh and Cornish Pirates respectively.

After the game, I walked along the coast to Lytham. I say "coast", I think there was water between me and Southport. On arrival, I adjourned to the Taps. On an almost summer day, the Thistly Cross Whisky Cask Cider caught my eye. After this, the National Rail app suggested the train back to Preston left Blackpool South on time, but, on a single line branch, there are no signals to track progress, so I was twiddling my thumbs for 20 minutes and missed my connection. Northern Rail's Twitter feed was busy.

I, on the other hand, planned to catch a train, an actual train

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

Final score: Lancashire 29 (T Dorrington 2, de la Harpe, Briers; C Collins 3; P Johnson) Yorkshire 14

Cast not a clout

There is a well known saying, "cast not a clout till May be out", suggesting the inadvisability of putting one's coat aside too early in the year. Rod, our drummer at Prescot Cables, insists it is "till the may be out ", i.e. the hawthorn, or may blossom, is flowering, although opinions on this vary. The first record of the saying is in 1706, when the Julian calendar was in use in England, so one should possibly keep a coat handy until the second week in June.

When I set out for the Cheshire v Lancashire game in the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup at Chester RUFC, cold weather was forecast.

The club had a stand on one side, and a modern clubhouse on the other, signs indicating 12 pitches, and facilities for other sports including the County Squash Centre. The club sits next to the A55, so I am not sure whether they sold any land for the bypass, and were able to extend their facilities with the purchase money. There was a decent crowd on both sides, which restricted the movement up and down the touchline that is ideal for taking pictures of a rugby game.

The sun that had been promised for later was starting to break through, so I took up position on the stand side under the trees, the same side of the pitch as the coaches, etc. There is a technical area marked out, but they seem more relaxed than in football about whether anyone stays in it. Even the flags are pressed into service, although I am not sure they provide much support.

All sports need sponsors: with Sharp's Brewery's Doom Bar becoming a national brand in a short time, by sponsoring rugby union they gain access to a market that likes the cask conditioned product, but wants certainty as to what they will be getting. I am happy to drink it in a pub or club serving just one or two national brands, but pass it over if there are more local or unusual beers available. There is scope for confusion as to whether you are referring to the product or the place you are selling it.

My recollection of the first half was as something for the expert, with a lot of scrums and mauls, with the former having to be reset quite a few times.

However, I got a few decent running shots too.

Rugby union came to have numbers on shirts later than football, and no-one has considered the idea of putting them on the front of the shirt. There is a firm link between number and position, and none of football's superstition about the number 13.

However, one of the Cheshire replacements seemed to have a shirt from a different series, and definitely was not a fly half.

For the second half I took up position by the other end of the stand, looking across the sun that had now fully emerged. Lancashire established a commanding lead, assisted by Christopher Johnson's reliable kicking.

In the last few seasons, Lancashire have had a majority of their replacements, as well as a number of the starting XV, from Fylde, making good use of the players' familiarity with each other to come from behind in a number of games. However, this year, eleven of the starting XV were from Fylde, with replacements from elsewhere. Cheshire did not give up, with a last minute converted try securing a losing bonus point.

By the end of the game, the sun was fully out. I chose to walk back to Chester, and could have done with casting my coat, but then I would not have had it to hand when it got cold again.

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

Final score: Lancashire 21 (T Stewart, Arnold; C Johnson, P Johnson 3) Cheshire 18

At least we did not need the points

There was a good turnout for Prescot Cables' final game of the season at Padiham, with the coach fully booked, eleven of us on our train with others following later. A couple of our party were making their first away trips, Dan, a regular attender at home games, and Thom, on placement from university in Nijmegen. Thom is working with Dr Jon, who thought that, in addition to places he plans to visit during his stay, such as London, Oxford and Cambridge, he might have an interesting experience if he were to visit somewhere less well known. Padiham is not well known even a short distance away: when we rang for taxis in Burnley, the person in the office claimed not to have heard of it.

Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, was unable to join us, and would have disapproved of some of our beer, although the establishments in which we consumed them were pleasant enough. The entries on WhatPub were a bit dated: one pub was listed as serving cask ales, but looked as though it had lacked the facility to do so for some time. At least the Hare and Hounds had an excellent range.

The end of the season is a time for reflection, completing a journey that started being chewed by mosquitoes on a wet July day in Coppull. Neil Prince had to put together a team more or less from scratch over the summer. Not many from that day were still with us: Neil Prince himself, James McCulloch, starting a third century of appearances, and the reliable Joe Evans.

Joe Evans

Matty West has rejoined the side in the last few games.

Matty West

Sam Corlett deserves a mention too, he joined us in the second pre season game, and has been with us ever since.

Sam Corlett

We tried a couple of players from our excellent youth team, who did not falter when the call came later, with Ben Morrow being a fixture in goal for the last two months ...

Ben Morrow

... and Andy Harper making himself a first choice for his position since being called up to the first team over Christmas.

Andy Harper

We have had a young team: seven or eight games in I realised I had been watching the club since before most players on the pitch had been born. A substitute warming up at that first pre season game was among their number, although older than I first thought, having played in the Wigan Athletic Academy before being released in May last year.

Our first sight of Jack Phillips

I would not see him warming up very often again unless I arrived early, as he made an instant claim for a start, with a good line in nimbly outwitting much larger players.

Three quarters of those released by academies never play again, and many who try to carry on do not last very long. The transition from football as a full time occupation to combining it with work or education must be quite challenging: Jack has been one of the best I have seen at managing it. I have not talked to him his university course, but on the field he was the season's top scorer, and made a well deserved clean sweep of the Supporters', Manager's and Players' Player of the Year awards.

Jack sends a defender the other way

Amidst all this reminiscing, there was a game we were actually attending.

Er, not that one - that was the cricket next door. A six was not without its risks.

Howzat!

As for our game: we had secured what we needed, and the hosts were determined to leave the league on a high note, which they did, with a 4-0 win including a hat trick from former Cables player Daley Woods.

After the game, some left quickly to get back in time for the club's presentation evening. This included Dr Phil, which confused the remaining pharmacologists, who try not to leave one of their number behind on their travels.

A lot of us have an interest in more than one team, and life is easier if they do not play each other. At least our finishing clear of the relegation positions meant East Grinstead Town were not competing with Prescot for a reprieve from relegation. As for Dulwich Hamlet, the FA are still consulting the entrails regarding a points deduction for an ineligible player fielded by Enfield Town in January, which affects whether they finished in a play off place, resulting in Dulwich's semi final at Margate being postponed with less than 48 hours' notice.

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

Final score: Padiham 4 Prescot Cables 0.