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.