Nice cigar, but no try

Prescot Cables planned to make a special occasion of the game at home to Warrington Town, with local Mayors and the Member of Parliament being invited. Unfortunately, whilst the week had been reasonably dry, it rained overnight on Friday, and by Saturday morning the pitch was no longer playable. With most football in Liverpool being postponed, I decided to head for Birkenhead Park. The opposition of the day was Wirral RUFC, from a couple of miles down the road, so they could take a late decision on whether to play. A slippery pitch in football can lead to broken ankles, whereas rugby players are likely to end up flat on their faces in the mud, which is in many ways the idea. Standing water is, however, a problem for everyone.

At the time I needed to leave home, the game was still on, so I bought a ticket. Some refer to Merseytravel's Walrus card as "Oyster style", presumably meaning it is small and plastic. The essential component of Oyster is pay-as-you-go, whereas Walrus is pay-before-you-go, so you need the day planned before you first use public transport, and changes are either wasteful or expensive.

No sooner had I got on the bus, I found the game was postponed. However, Waterloo (one less zone on the Walrus) were still playing. This was against Sheffield, so if there was an announcement, it would have been made by then, although it was still raining heavily. I presented £10 at the turnstiles, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a programme and £7 in return.

I took a position on the terrace side, where there were pools of water: the pitch looked soft but playable. Waterloo were playing into a stiff breeze, with low cloud, and, with the floodlights being under repair, it was fortunate both sides' kit included some white

That did not last long, particularly for the forwards. although some of the backs tend to stay standing for longer.

Soon, mud was starting to merge with facial furniture.

For the second half, the hosts took advantage of being at home, and changed into dry kit, of a colour to do no favours to my exposures.

The referee also changed into something drier, although he was more visible.

This was a low scoring game, more rare in rugby of either code than a few years ago. Better pitches and rule changes have reduced the incidence of matches with pushing and shoving in the mud for 80 minutes finishing 3-0. This was not quite such a game, but the scores came from a penalty apiece in each half. I only attend three or four games a season, but I think this is the  first I have been to where both sides stayed in single figures, and the first where neither side scored a try.

As for the cigar, I was not actually going to attempt to smoke one (the last time I did was when you could do so indoors), it was far to wet for one to stay alight.

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

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 6 Sheffield 6