Bridge the gap

Arriving for Prescot Cables' game at Tadcaster Albion, I quickly spotted the town's main claim to fame for the last couple of years. It spans the River Wharfe, one side in the West Riding proper, and the other in the Ainsty of York. The latter's agricultural revenue once supported the city but by the end of its existence as an administrative entity, it was a wild and lawless place. It is a lot quieter these days, as we were to find. The bridge, being the only practical route between the two halves, showed smooth new stone from repairs after it was partially demolished by a flood in 2015.

Give it 20 years of weathering and you will not be able to see the join. Looking up the story of the collapse, I see our hosts allowed their car park to be used for access to the temporary footbridge in place during the repairs.

A number of our train crew made a weekend of it in York, and, as is his wont, Dr Phil brought along some more Doctors (at least I think they all are). Our pharmacological expertise (nothing performance enhancing, most of them work on livers) was augmented by Benny, who has been to a few games, and Cables newcomers Tammy, Victoria and Amy. I was just there for the day, so it was a lot cheaper to travel via Leeds. Having grown up in the countryside, striding across fields with nothing in the way, but near enough to London to experience fast moving crowds, I often think that if places like Leeds had the number of people found in London, they would literally come to a standstill, with people gathered round train doors and no-one able to get on or off, and the streets blocked by people ambling along three abreast at a glacial pace. Dodging these obstacles, I made it to Leeds Bus Station for the Coastliner bus, which was not going as far as the coast, but that is Yorkshire economy for you, in the same way they lack trebles on their dartboards.

A Yorkshire dartboard, spotted by Dr James

I pottered around taking a few pictures before a pre match pint in the Howden Arms opposite the ground. I have had Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Bitter in London and not been keen, but either my tastes have changed or it really does taste better in Tadcaster.

Marcus Burgess

It looked as though every inch of the pitch perimeter was taken with advertising, although on closer inspection many of the boards belonged to the club - not necessarily a bad thing, as, when you see the photos, you know where you are.

Josh Dolling. Ee ba gum.

The weather was good for action photography, with about seven oktas of light cloud. In a week when I pulled the leg of my friend Matt from the Lost Boyos for dodgy geography where the lack of knowledge turned out to be mine, I can still remember the unit of measurement for cloud cover. It was a decent level of light for fast shutter speeds, and the cloud means an absence of distracting shadows.

Josef Faux - 1/1000s f/5.6 ISO500 300mm

We opened the scoring inside the first few minutes with a goal from Chris Almond.

Chris Almond shoots for goal ...

... and watches it go in.

It was an evenly balanced half, with the hosts equalising, Chris Almond scoring again, and the hosts once again drawing level.

Visiting the tea bar at half time, I got the end of a batch of chips - all the better, as there were plenty of the crispy bits near the bottom of the pan. The weather was more changeable in the second half, with some sun and a couple of light showers.

Andy Scarisbrick

A further goal eluded both sides, not for want of trying. With Goole losing, we restored another point of the cushion between us and them.

After the game, most of our party stayed for a couple of drinks, in the Angel and White Horse, where Samuel Smith keep their white dray horses, and the Coach and Horses next to the bus station. We were probably a bit noisy for the town, where most pubs seemed geared towards dining, and they may well have been relieved when we took ourselves back to the city.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Tadcaster Albion 2 Prescot Cables 2 (Almond 2)