Once in every lifetime

There was a surprise at Prescot Cables' game at home to Harrogate Railway Athletic, not least for supporter Chris Hayden, who has been watching for a few years, having worked with former player Enzo Benn. Being the mascot, usually performed by our younger supporters, can also provide amusing embarrassment for a stag do, and is the sort of human interest story that gets you in the paper. Here is Chris shaking hands with Harrogate captain Dan Thirkell, who always cuts a somewhat smaller figure than my expectation of a large Viking, like his near namesake Thorkell the Tall.

We had not been sure the game would go ahead, as snow had fallen on Friday, which Chris had volunteered his party to help clear. A rising temperature did the job instead, and, fortunately, the resulting water drained away rather than pooled.

The game got off at a quick tempo, but it was 20 minutes before we saw the first goal, from Rob Doran.

I had taken up position on the Gasworks Side for a few minutes, but the resulting photo only made it into the collection on the "goal is a goal" principle. Rob followed this with a goal from a header about 5 minutes later for which I got the picture I sent in to the paper.

This was followed up with an almost identical goal five minutes later, before the visitors pulled one back a couple of minutes after that. The scoring for the first half was completed with a fourth goal from Rob a couple of minutes from time.

It was then time for the half-time entertainment, provided by the stag party's penalty shoot out competition, with Danny Flood, taking the opportunity for some light stretching whilst recovering from injury, going in goal.

The second half seemed almost tame in comparison with the first, although the pace showed no sign of slackening. The only goal was scored in injury time by a Harrogate substitute, Dan Barrett. The stag party came to the loudly expressed conclusion he had a haircut which resembled a pineapple. I am not sure how they decided this, even if the default instruction of a number of hairdressers in the Harrogate area seems to be "not too much off the top".

Marcus Burgess gathers from Dan Barrett

Dan reacted to his goal by giving the supporters a cheery wave, which kept everybody happy.

After the game there was a presentation for the website's first player of the month award, which for February went to Jonah O'Reilly who has been solid in defence.

Jonah O'Reilly

There was some discussion as to when one of our players last scored four goals in a game, and nobody could think of anything more recent than Harry Grisedale scoring what From Slacky Brow to Hope Street records as a double hat trick in a Liverpool Non League Senior Cup game in 1959. It also tells us Harry was a full back, so presumably there were happy, as we are, getting goals from any part of the pitch.

One hopes that a marriage and its associated festivities is a once in a lifetime event; however, whilst one does not wish to be greedy, I hope this will not be the only time I see one of our players scoring this many goals in a game.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google photos (with a couple of extra pictures from the stag do) here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 4 (Doran 4) Harrogate Railway Athletic 2.

Catch points

In the wider world, attention last week was on the Scottish Independence Referendum. A Yes may have given a league in England trips to Berwick Rangers, further away for most than "bloody Blyth bloody Spartans on a bloody Tuesday night", the question being which league is the same standard as Scottish Division Two. The No result put Yorkshire independence off the agenda for a bit too, so we welcomed Harrogate Railway Athletic. Dr Phil the Pharmacologist travelled from Edinburgh, although he attended the Liverpool Food Festival and joined some of us later. I do not consider a large variety of food on matchday, the main issue is steak & kidney or meat & potato, and whether to have peas and gravy with it. Still, he missed the match to attend the Food Festival last year too, and we won 7-1 against New Mills.

Harrogate were wearing blue, the first time I have seen their away colours. They have always worn red and green when I have seen them playing us in the past, but they had a home game on the following Monday, so would need it for that.

James Cairns

Most benches have someone taking notes these days, rather than relying on recollections for team talks and assessments as most did when I started watching the game. We do not have coaches in the stand using laptops, but paper and pen are much in evidence. Dave Powell was very economical with a single sheet of paper folded multiple times, but funds now stretch to a clipboard.

Ian Johnson makes notes as Sam Corlett receives the ball

It is one thing to be taking notes, but the visitors looked like they were drawing a picture, and not necessarily choosing the safest place to do it.

We saw the return of a couple of a couple of familiar faces.

John Beattie

Mason Ryan leaves the opposition in disarray

Prescot could not convert possession into goals, despite coming close a number of times, and, as so often happens in such situations, Harrogate scored just before half time.

The second half saw the return from injury of Matty West, who added himself to the score sheet.

This picture has everything for a picture of a goal, apart from one flaw - the number 4 being in the way of my view of the ball. Still, at least from there he will not be stopping it going in the net.

Harrogate went ahead again, and it looked as though we would miss out, until Sam Corlett scored in the last minute to pick up another point, which we have yet to see come in threes this season. Once again it was welcome that we were able to keep up the pressure to the end, and gain from the last minute goal rather than falling victim to it.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (West, Corlett), Harrogate Railway Athletic 2

Engineering works

Hopes were high before Harrogate Railway Athletic's visit to Prescot Cables. We had seen a superb defensive point against Darlington, and were encouraged by three goals in a 5-3 defeat at Ramsbottom United. Draws and good goals against top sides keep players and supporters enthused, but wins against sides with whom we are competing to avoid relegation provide the points to secure safety. Harrogate looked safe, and we need a few more points to be sure.

Harrogate sides often include industrial sized Yorkshirepersons, but this time they had a few smaller players. Nathan Cartman, seen here with Phil Bannister, is a name that reaches even this side of the Pennines, being 10th in the scorers' table for our Division.

I took up position in front of the tea bar.

Mike Kennedy playing in front of the stand

I intended to adjourn behind the goal, but my lens hood blew on to the pitch (fortunately not the field of play) before I had chance to attach it, so I had to wait for the substitutes to start warming up so one could retrieve it.

Lloyd Balazs - second half substitute and impromptu photographer's assistant

I could probably get a bib and access to the pitch, but I have never done so, as I blog about using consumer kit from places spectators can access. Also, the perimeter is quite close to the edge of the field of play, so there is a risk of ending up sandwiched between a player and the fence.

Conditions were a bit misty, especially when the sun came out.

Robert Gilroy - picture taken from one corner flag to the other

There have been reports of air pollution including sand from the Sahara brought over by high level air currents. These reports had not appeared at the weekend, although a couple of friends found their cars surprisingly dusty on Sunday morning. Whatever the mist was, you still get an impression of it in the final version.

Dave Powell said to the Merseymart that the team did not really click as a unit for this game. We could not provide a response to an early Harrogate goal.

In the last few weeks we have been helped by teams around us losing or drawing when we have done so, and avoiding defeat at New Mills and Padiham maintained our position relative to them. This weekend, teams around us won, closing the gap between us and the relegation positions. In "normal" circumstances, two clubs are relegated from each division at Step 4, making 12 in all. In the event of Step 5 leagues not providing a club for promotion or of resignations further up, the club(s) second from bottom with the best points per game will be reprieved, so we develop an interest in the tables of the Ryman and Calor Leagues. Clubs finishing bottom is not eligible for reprieve.

However, we know Wakefield will not have a ground for next season. Clubs must own, lease or share for the following season a ground meeting the FA's Grade D by 31st March. Wakefield will therefore be relegated. I thought this meant they take the non-reprievable place, although Sports Performer understands the FA have stipulated the bottom placed club cannot be reprieved even in these circumstances.

This is further complicated by our local rivals Cammell Laird. Their Football Committee is separate from the Board of the Limited Company that owns the club. Due to a dispute over ownership, the Football Committee will not continue to run the football side after the end of this season. This places the ball with the Directors to find someone to run it or resign from the League. If they resign before the end of the season, and take a relegation position, the bottom club (it if is not Wakefield) must presumably be reprieved to avoid three clubs being relegated. If they resign after the end of the season, I have no idea whether they take the place of a relegated team, or a place goes into the national pot for reprieves.

With games against Curzon Ashton, Bamber Bridge and Warrington Town, our run in is not without challenges, but we are capable of picking up surprise points, and still have to travel to Wakefield - whilst our away form has not been good, neither has their home form.

The pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Harrogate Railway Athletic 1

Climbing Mount Starbeck

An irate club official (not from the clubs involved in the match reported here) was once heard to say to a referee, "I marked you as 1 [out of 10]. I wanted to give you 0, but I could not, because you had the correct equipment." Having the correct equipment matters for the photographer too, and these pages often mention a forgotten item that makes life more difficult. For a visit to Harrogate Railway Athletic, there is a check list: ropes, crampons...

On arrival in a sunny Harrogate, Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, led us to the Coach and Horses, at which point the party split, with some heading to Muckle's Sports Bar next door, which was offering a well kept Leeds Pale Ale, amongst other choices, and the chance to watch Everton v Liverpool on the large screen. I was also keeping an eye on Sheffield Wednesday v Huddersfield Town on the smaller screen to see if former Dulwich Hamlet striker Daniel Carr was playing.

The hill towards Harrogate and the houses behind the ground were already casting a full shadow over the pitch by the time of kick off, with just some reflected sunlight on the fencing where the old clubhouse used to stand.

Isaac Kusoloka

The absence of cloud probably gave us half an hour more of natural light than we had on the last couple of Saturdays, with the floodlights coming on towards the end of the first half. Here is James McCulloch in the last image I used from the half: Movember is coming along nicely!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had a spot of bother with my computer - it turned out more than a spot, to the point the cost of repairs looked like it may not be much less than a new machine, so I replaced it. One welcome change from the last time I bought a computer was that I did not need to buy much software, there is now a good open source option for most of the tasks I use it to perform. The only exception was Photoshop Elements, and had I been making a planned change, or one out of the season, I would have looked around more to see what was available, but I needed to get pictures out without time to learn a new package.

I moved from version 8 on my old computer, to version 12. There are improvements, it is a bit quicker, and the lighting adjustments seem more powerful. The most useful addition is a grid in the crop window, making it easier to adjust where I have not been holding the camera straight. Take this photo of Enzo Benn - this is how it came off the camera, with just the lighting adjusted.

When we crop the picture, the grid is useful for lining up against the corrugated iron fence in the background, which we know is true and vertical.

The end result has the horizon correctly horizontal, and captures the slope that is a feature of the ground.

Something less than an improvement is the position of the tool options, such as the aspect ratio for cropping. In version 8, these were in a narrow bar along the top of the screen. In a time when most new computer screens are 16:9 widescreen, some clever person thought the best place for this was in a large frame at the bottom of the screen, shrinking the area available for the picture you are working on (and the application does not allow you to move it), when there is plenty of room at the side, so it is a lot of extra clicks to keep showing and hiding it.

As for the game, having conceded a penalty, we thought that if we were able to equalise, we could probably build on it and go ahead, but this was not to be, Rob Doran scoring the only Cables goal of the game, with Nathan Cartman putting Harrogate ahead.

Rob Doran

Most of the Train Crew headed home after the game, but I made my usual visit to a rather busy (but still with a corner for me to curl up with my post match refreshment and paper) Blind Jack's in Knaresborough.

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

Final score: Harrogate Railway Athletic 2 Prescot Cables 1 (Doran)

At least it's proper Yorkshire

Thus said our Church Treasurer, a Yorkshireperson, when I said I had been at Harrogate Railway Athletic the previous day. I am not sure what he counted as proper Yorkshire: he disdained places such as Halifax (we do that too), but he cannot have been casting aspersions on the whole West Riding, as Harrogate is in it - parts of the West Riding ended up in North, West, South and East Yorkshire for local government purposes.

The small but select group of independently travelling supporters took our pre match refreshment in the Montpellier Quarter of Harrogate. This hosted a number of establishments advertising themselves as a brasserie, which I thought is what they call a cash machine in Yorkshire. The first establishment we visited has a sporting link, Hales Bar having featured in Chariots of Fire. The bar has working gas jet cigar lighters, although they now just contribute to the heating, as it would be illegal to light a cigar, even to take outside before puffing away, as possession of lit tobacco comes within the definition of smoking for the smoke free legislation.

This being Lent, and my having given up meat for the duration, the selection at the tea bar can be somewhat limited - no horsey tastiness of a pie or burger for me. However, these days you more or less make up your own Lent regulations: I just avoid anything that is identifiably meat, so gravy on my chips was still in. Back when Lent regulations were more rigid, one odd exception in Germany was that beaver tails could be eaten, as they looked like fish. I am not sure whether Harrogate was ever well populated by beavers (Beverley in the East Riding derives its name from the semi aquatic rodents), but they seem to have found their way on to the club crest, and as the mascot.

I have mentioned in previous posts how sometimes we need to use the background to adjust the picture to get it straight. In this picture of Liam Hollett taking a header, we might look at the crossbar and think it is a candidate for adjustment.

It was: on the camera, there was not enough of a slope. Harrogate competes with Clitheroe for the steepest side to side slope in the division. The crossbar is 8' above the ground along its length, so sloping ground correctly means a sloping crossbar. We can just about see the breeze block wall in the background, which will usually be level (in the case of Leatherhead a bit too level). To get the angle right, I started with a wider crop, so I could line up against the houses behind the ground.

When we visited Harrogate last season, they were building a new clubhouse adjacent to both the main and training pitches, financed by selling their old clubhouse for development as a nursing home. As well as providing excellent facilities, the new developments have an unexpected bonus for the photographer, as they provide handy walls, windows and drainpipes against which to align a shot, at the end where it used to be quite difficult to get the angle right. Take this shot of Carl Furlong.

Having used the buildings, they have served our purpose, so we can crop them out.

Unusually, I had something to send to the Merseymart for each of Prescot's goals, although in each case the final shot before the goal went in did not capture the image I wanted. For the second goal from Jon Bathurst, it looks as though the defender is about to get the ball.

Although I correctly captioned this as goal no 2 on the slide show, I thought this one from a second or so before, showing Jon leaving the defenders in disarray, would be the better image for the paper, and it was indeed the one they used.

Similarly, I captured Sean Myler's debut goal for Prescot's third.

However, a shot of the featured player's back does not really work, so I again used one from a second before, not quite such clear action, but at least we can see the player's face.

Finally, Liam Dawson's first goal was scored from a few yards away from this picture, but it was close enough to go in with the caption "Liam Dawson avoids his marker for Prescot's first goal".

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

Last of the summer light

This weekend saw the last of the afternoon games before the clocks go back, not a guarantee of good light, but we know from next week it will be dark towards the end of the game. Prescot Cables' game at home to Harrogate Railway Athletic saw a welcome, if chilly, clear day, which gave a strong light from the side across the pitch with some deep shadows.

Callum Hoctor shields his eyes from the sun

For about three quarters of our home games, we play towards the Safari Park End (i.e. away from the entrance to the ground) in the first half, as we almost always choose that direction, and about half the visiting teams choose to play towards the Hope Street end. This is better for me because of the way the sun moves round the ground during the game, particularly at this time of year when it is low in the sky.

The game started promisingly for Prescot, with a goal after 2 minutes from Jonathon Bathurst. This is the second week in a row Jon has scored a goal, and I have not got a picture. The most difficult type of goal to capture is when a player gets on the end of a cross and whips it in before the goalkeeper has chance to react. Professionals at the top level will often have an unattended camera on a tripod behind the goal, continuously shooting when anyone is near. I do not have the spare equipment for that, and placing it on the terraces would present a tripping hazard for fellow spectators, and indeed they would present a tripping hazard to the kit.

Jonathon Bathurst

I sometimes wonder whether the quality of the play on offer affects the quality of the pictures that result.

After the goal, the performance was described in the report by our Press Officer, Richard Quinn, as "error strewn", which applied to both teams, but probably more to us. I tend to be snapping away when players are making runs or competing for the ball in the opposition's half, so when the game is mainly in our half, and dominated by errors, I found myself with about a quarter less exposures than normal by the end of the game, although, as that is still in the hundreds, I was still able to produce a slide show of the normal size of about 60 pictures.

The players' profiles were updated in the programme for this game, to include those who had joined since the start of the season. I had not realised how young the team is, with most being between 19 and 22. Having a group of young players keen to see how far they are able to go in the game has given us a team that is the best I have seen for some time for playing to the final whistle.

This game was a case in point - Harrogate scored at 75 and 81 minutes, and it would have been easy to accept the points had been lost. Not so with this team, with an equaliser coming from Jack Webb in the last minute of injury time. I captured this one, thus ensuring Jack a second week on the back page of the Merseymart.

Jack Webb controls the ball ...

... and shoots for goal

I have never been a fan of Haloween, it had not reached the church going countryside when I was growing up, and I have never seen the point of it since, but some decided to join in the fun.

Actually, the skeletons appeared not long before our equaliser, so they may have had the effect of scaring play into the Harrogate half!

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

Ee ba gum, it's a bit parky

Between Christmas and New Year, leagues tend to give clubs local fixtures - not like the fifties, when teams could just as easily have a long away trip on Christmas Day, with the return fixture on Boxing Day - I am sure I have read somewhere of Middlesbrough playing Plymouth in the Football League in these circumstances. The same cannot be said for the Saturday before Christmas, where there is often a chance to take a long trip and get well away from Christmas shopping.

This year, Prescot were away to Harrogate Railway Athletic. I like club names reflecting our industrial heritage. The Harrogate & District Railway Athletic Social Club was formed by employees of the London & North Eastern Railway works at Starbeck, between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

I set out from a snowy Liverpool, where we would definitely not have had a home game, with possible alternative entertainment in mind, as I was not completely convinced by messages emanating from Harrogate that the weather was lovely and the game was going ahead. Snow was still on the ground coming in to Yorkshire. This blog uses historic county boundaries for reference, so Yorkshire begins between the parishes of St George and St John the Baptist in Mossley, or for the secular minded, between Mossley FC and the Rising Sun.

Past Huddersfield, the weather reports proved to be accurate, and I got some snaps in Knaresborough, and a pint in Blind Jack's, then headed to the game. We started in good light for December, with the regulars being joined by a couple of new faces, and a returning Colin Flood.

This being Yorkshire, and the middle of December, it was still more than a little cold. I do not find too much problem keeping warm, and my feet do not matter as long as they still move at the end of the game. That just leaves fingers, which need function throughout, despite the body's inclination to cut down the blood supply. Full gloves are fine for the left hand, which only needs to control the zoom ring, but on the right hand lose too much control over the shutter button. Bare hands end up cold and less than responsive, and I have never found fingerless gloves to be very helpful. I have recently tried running gloves, which have been an improvement - they keep most of the wind off, and are thin enough to keep control of the camera.

Not that they are completely effective, by the end of the game (a picture from the last 10 minutes or so above), it was time for the coldest part of the day, when you start moving after standing still for 90 minutes, and all that blood that has been cooling in your feet starts moving to make the rest of you cold, so it was back to Knaresborough and Blind Jack's to warm up.

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