Eat pies lad, not stones

As I made my way round the pitch at Thatto Heath Crusaders' game at home to Wigan St Patricks, I happened upon a two or three year old boy, who had picked up some stones from the hard standing, and, with the natural curiosity of the toddler, was about to see if they were good to eat. As his father was removing them from his grasp, an older gentleman, whom I took to be his grandfather, chipped in with, "You want to eat pies lad, not stones", advice fully endorsed by this blog.

I was surprised, looking back through these pages, that I have not covered rugby league. The last time I photographed regularly was for Liverpool Buccaneers, who have been defunct for some years, since the Kingstone Press National Conference League joined the rest of the game with a summer season, removing the pool of players who wanted to play in a summer and a winter league. I am not sure why I had not found Thatto Heath before, as they are only a few stops on the 10A bus (all human life is there) from Prescot, and they play on a Saturday, which is my preferred day for sport.

The ground has main and training pitches, a modern clubhouse and an indoor training facility, although with the traditional approach of rugby of both codes to wet weather protection for spectators, i.e. bring your own!

I arrived a few minutes late to find both sides had scored one try each, with the hosts having converted theirs. I took up a position on the clubhouse side, near the end Thatto Heath were attacking. The visitors were the first to score after I had started - the nature of the kick off placed active competition for the ball more or less in front of me.

I have a tendency when following a side to concentrate on their players with the ball, but in rugby in particular there is as good a photo in players making a tackle.

It started to rain towards the end of the first half, and the wind was coming in from the open side, so I went that way for the second half, as rain is easier to deal with on the back of my head rather than the front of the camera.

It stopped after a few minutes, leaving good light conditions. I tried some shots from behind the goal line, and was rewarded with a picture of a try.

One of the main differences between union and league is the absence in the latter of what the former calls the breakdown, the ruck or maul, an opportunity to train lenses ready for the ball to emerge. The play-the-ball, by which play continues after a tackle, is a much quicker affair, indeed it is a foul to delay it by keeping hold of a tackled player for longer than necessary. There is no time for a breather in this game, not even for the photographer.

The hosts had taken a firm grip by this time, securing a convincing win to recover their winning ways from earlier in the season and put them on top of the table.

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

Final score: Thatto Heath Crusaders 44 Wigan St Patricks 12