Wherever the highway unwinds

The eyes of the non league world seemed to be concentrated last weekend on Scarborough Athletic playing their first fixture at their new ground, returning to the town for the first time in ten years. On a lower key, in Lancashire, I watched St Helens Town also moving in to their new home, having had a peripatetic existence after a deal with St Helens RLFC worked out more to the advantage of the latter.

There were a few teething problems with the council run facilities at the new Ruskin Sports Village, but they were in a position to entertain Congleton Town, and were optimistic of everything being ready for the start of the season. My benevolent disposition towards Town's homecoming was mildly reduced by someone complaining about his lucky escape from pneumonia in Prescot Cables' board room last season, although on the substantive issue, I have to concede it is a smidgeon cold.

I had been right in my assessment of Pilkington Recs pitch the previous week, the football pitch had much shorter blades of polyester, with more crumb.

With the sky overcast and no sun to worry about, I took up position at the end St Helens were attacking.

St Helens opened the scoring with Congleton replying a few minutes later, with plenty of other chances for both sides that they were not able to convert.

The hosts had their own photographer whereas the visitors appeared not to, so I decided to aim for a neutral collection and stayed in the same position for the second half.

 Mannion, who played a few games for Prescot Cables when Andy Paxton was manager, was appearing for the visitors on the side I was covering.

Congleton are in the division above St Helens, and in the second half made their advantage on paper felt on the field with two more goals without reply.

There was a reasonable crowd, although some people I expect to be planning to visit a new ground may be waiting for competitive action. However, I am sure that once the weather closes in, there will be a few taking refuge from weather related postponements at other grounds.

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

Final score St Helens Town 1 Congleton Town 3

Touchdowns, runways and roads

I decided not to travel to Thatto Heath Crusaders' game at Wath Brow Hornets, although with the unexpected good weather, I should have treated myself to a stay at the coast. There was a crop of pre season football games, but I stayed with competitive rugby league. Pilkington Recs were the nearest club, at home to Wigan St Patricks. They had been an option when I started watching a couple of months ago, but Thatto Heath were nearer, and Pilkington had a regular photographer. I am not worried about treading on toes, but at a club without I am more likely to be useful. This was the case with Thatto Heath asking whether I was coming again after my first collection.

This was the official opening day at Ruskin Sports Village, previously owned by the Pilkington glass company, now run by St Helens Council with facilities for Pilkington Recs and St Helens Town FC. I found a festival in full swing, with cricket, a junior football tournament, tennis and bowls in addition to rugby. As I was early, I watched a few overs of the cricket with an ice cream. Some of the first dedicated sports action photographs just over 100 years ago were taken of cricket. This is logical, as for much of the action you can train your camera on where the player will be, and concentrate on the shutter. As I had no idea who the teams were, and therefore where to send the pictures, I decided not to try my hand.

Our game was preceded by a minute's silence for Adam Cooper, who sadly died playing for Culcheth Eagles in a National Conference League fixture the previous week.

This was the first time I have watched rugby on a 3G pitch. There seemed to be more and longer polyester blades and less visible rubber crumb than I would normally expect. The shine from the blades can affect the lighting on a bright sunny day.

We have seen the visitors before, playing in all black.

I have encountered the hosts' colours in rugby union, chosen I suspect because it holds visibility in the mud: less of a consideration for league now it is a summer game. It also reproduces well under most lighting conditions.

With the sun shining strongly from the hosts' end, I took up position near the half way line.

I was right about a resident photographer or two, lenses were being trained from all directions.

The game followed a pattern that has been common for me this season, starting evenly, with one side, in this case Pilkington's, having an advantage at half time, and taking a decisive grip to run away as clear winners in the second.

After the game, I had a choice of cricket - more overs at the ground, or a pint in tip top condition at the Cricketers' Arms. I decided on the latter. Despite the name and some cricket memorabilia, rugby league is a way of life in these parts. The bases of the hand pumps all bear the name of  one of the great St Helens players, and I cannot remember a minute's silence as well observed in a pub as that for Adam Cooper at the start of the televised game.

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

Final score: Pilkington Recs 50 Wigan St Patricks 22

What are Kells?

A number of settlements around the Irish Sea have the name of Kells, with examples in Westmeath, Kilkenny, Antrim, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and the home of Thatto Heath Crusaders' visitors, near Whitehaven on the Cumberland coalfield. Most derive from forts or raised land (and it is logical to put a fort on a hill). Continuing our references to railway curiosities, the hill on which this Kells stands was once accessed by the Corckickle Brake cable worked incline.

My main photographic customer, Prescot Cables, has had a relatively stable team over the last couple of years, so I have not had to learn the names of a new team from scratch. I do not need to caption pictures for Thatto Heath, but I still like to know who I am watching, and they post the team sheet online, which is a considerable help.

Owen Scholes

Rugby league seems to me the code with least clues as to who might be who when you watch a team for the first time. In football, provided I have a team sheet, I quickly remember the name of the goalkeeper. The full backs take a lot of throw ins and free kicks, and I work forwards and inwards from there.

Jamie Tracey

In rugby union, the scrum half is quite identifiable, and the props, flankers and number 8 will quickly become familiar, as they spend a lot of time on their scrums. The scrum half will also extract the ball from rucks and mauls, and, since they stopped doing dive passes, will probably be one of the cleaner players on the pitch.

This is no help in league, where scrums are uncontested affairs to keep the forwards engaged, giving the side putting in the chance to run. Being clean is not much of a distinction on a hot, dry day - I dread to think what going to a summer game has done for employment among laundry workers.

The same player often performs a similar function at the play-the-ball, but that is less of a photographic opportunity than the breakdown in union - the interest comes much more in runs and tackles.

Sean Kenny

One player will often take most of the kicks in a game - it helps if you have a memorable name, at times I suspect a good and a bad thing.

Bobbie Goulding

As for the rest, it is a matter of matching back and front by boots and haircuts, and, in a summer game with short sleeves, tattoos.

Thatto Heath got off to a flying start, so much so that Dan Birkett scored the first try before I had made up my mind where to stand and was dithering behind the dugout. It was a competitive game, with the visitors scoring two unconverted tries to put them ahead at half time. The lead was exchanged twice in the second half, with the hosts eventually collecting the points.

After the game, the chap who sells the half time draw tickets (which if I win is a donation, as I never remember to check) engaged me in conversation. He initially thought I was with Kells, as I was wearing a shirt with narrow red hoops, like a Lancashire rugby union shirt - although I am not sure any sort of red and white hoops are normal wear in these parts!

As I came to post the link to the pictures on Twitter, I discovered another use of the name Kells - looking for the opposition's account, I had to scroll through quite a lot of people using it as an abbreviation for Kelly before I found what I was looking for.

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

Final score: Thatto Heath Crusaders 22 Kells 16.

Mining

My limited research into the history of sports and those who played them in Lancashire and Yorkshire suggests a rough rule of thumb: after 1895, mill workers seem to have played football, miners played rugby league, and farmers and the commercial classes played rugby union, with football becoming more popular amongst the miners by the time of, and certainly after, the First World War. This occupational grouping makes sense - to arrange sport after work, your colleagues are probably a good group amongst whom to start.

There is therefore a strong presence of amateur rugby league in the former Lancashire coalfield with many club names referring to their industrial heritage. With Thatto Heath Crusaders playing at Leigh Miners Rangers, I found a bus from St Helens, and having paid the extra £2 for an Arriva North West monthly season ticket rather than a Merseyside one, it was all included.

On arrival, I went through the large, well maintained bar. At the cash desk by the door I received a neat nightclub style stamp, which, as soon as I put my hand in my pocket, smudged to look like a nasty insect bite. The pitch was railed on both sides, but, being used to football ground gradings, I was unsure how to get to the other side, until I realised they trust you to walk behind the dead ball line without railing it off. To be fair to football, given that a try is scored some yards away, there is less chance of a player running into you and sending you flying.

I am not sure what colours of kit the match officials have available to them in the amateur game, but I was not entirely convinced by their choice.

Having said that, the only other colour I have seen at this level is yellow, which would have been even more of a clash.

The hosts were propping up the division, with the visitors challenging for the top spot, but there was no room for complacency. Leigh had the stronger start, but were unable to turn it into points. A home supporter may have been a bit pessimistic: about a minute after the first Thatto Heath try came an announcement asking for someone to move their car as it was blocking another vehicle. Another local was a bit enthusiastic and had to be escorted off when the try was scored, perhaps not appreciating it was for the opposition.

Leigh looked as though they may have a chance towards the end of the first half, taking advantage of errors from the visitors.

Thatto Heath continued strongly in the second half, although the game was never totally out of Leigh's reach, the visitors eventually securing two valuable league points.

Photographing rugby, I have a "try is a try" principle, in the same way as the corresponding "goal is a goal" principle in football. I could probably have done with showing a bit more post to see the location.

By the time rugby league came about, railway time was firmly established, ensuring time was the same at all places in the country rather than varying by a few minutes from town to town. It is a little known fact that the 34 bus from St Helens to Leigh prefers the older system. At least that is the best explanation for the outward bus getting earlier as it got nearer to Leigh, and now I trotted up to the bus station a good two minutes early only to see the bus drive off.

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

Final score Leigh Miners Rangers 20 Thatto Heath Crusaders 28