Four sevens and two Fs

Once there were express trains and local trains. These days train companies sweat the assets when they are not sweating the passengers, so a long distance train will often run part of the journey as a local service. Thus there is a train from Chester direct to Maesteg, north of Bridgend. The name stood out in rugby results on Grandstand in the seventies: Maesteg were one of the top clubs in Wales, winning the Merit Table in 1978 and 1979. I knew a chap from the town at University, and I always thought if I find myself in South Wales, I should pop along and watch a game. The club badge includes the characters "7777", whose origins are explained on the website.

That is business for another day, as I was on my way to Flint Town United, where Prescot Cables were playing their last away pre season game (with two to play at home). A number of places where the name is the same in English and Welsh now use the Welsh spelling, especially in the north west. The situation in the north east is more mixed, but some give Flint a "Welsh" spelling.

The trouble is that the name of Flint in Welsh is "Y Fflint" (signs at the station exclusively carry this name), so putting an extra F in English does not make a lot of sense.

For a ground less than 5 minutes from the station, Flint is a bit tricky to find if you approach from the wrong direction. Come from the river side of the station, the ground is right in front of you. Come, as I did, from the town side, it is hidden behind houses, so you follow the map to their postal address, and end up in someone's garden. There is a sign at the junction, but whoever put it up thought there would be no problem putting a tree in the same bit of ground.

Our hosts intended to kick off at 2.30, the normal time for games in the Cymru Alliance. We anticipated 3pm, and Dave Powell had to hastily assemble the players for the earlier time. Not that he need have done so, the message did not reach Tony Zeverona, our Chairman, who brought the kit. The match therefore kicked off at about 2.50, meaning that, as I arrived at 3pm, I only missed 10 minutes or so.

The pitch is aligned north-east - south-west, so, in the first half, if I wanted to watch our team, there was no way of avoiding shooting straight in to the sun, which never produces the best lighting results, apart from for our goalkeeper in the shadow of the fence.

We could have fielded a good team with players who were not there, with only Antony Shinks, Phil Bannister and Ged Murphy present from those I would describe as regular first team players. I think Dave Powell was using this game to make a final assessment of players who have joined over the summer, deciding who to keep for the squad. No trip to Wales seems complete without bumping into one of our former players, this time Alejandro Barba, who had the thankless task of marking Connor McCarthy, making a strong claim for a first team place with two goals.

Connor McCarthy keeps Alejandro Barba at bay

When we score a goal, my first reaction, as a supporter, is to lower the camera and applaud. Then the photographer kicks back in and I try to get a couple of shots of the celebration. I almost always include one in the collection that I edit, not because it will be a good picture, it is more often not, so finds its way to the cutting room floor, but it is a useful marker for the pictures of the goal.

Ged Murphy and Antony Shinks congratulate Connor McCarthy on his goal

The light in the second half was of course directly behind me, which gives less problems.

Jordan Smith shoots for Cables' 4th goal

I had not expected to spend more time than the length of the match in Flint, but after the game I was able to look at the ruined castle, and enjoy the riverside walk, where I met this fine looking chap.

At 1/100s at 300mm in a decent breeze, I am surprised he did not disappear into a blur of camera shake.

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

I'm sure it's not supposed to crunch when you do that

That is what I have been saying for 30 years when I rotate my left arm. As the occasional discomfort in the shoulder (usually in damp weather) started when I was 14, and has got neither better nor worse since, I have never regarded it as a cause for concern.

However, my 70-300mm zoom lens has recently been making a sound as if something is not engaging, at the 300mm end of the range, which suggests it may be developing a fault. Not that I can complain, I have subjected it to a level of usage many would not normally reach. I took it to a repair shop, where the helpful, if lugubrious, assistant was confident that the issue was with the Vibration Reduction (VR) unit.

VR is a wonderful thing, but not particularly relevant for sport. As a rough rule of thumb, you start to have a problem with the shake from hand holding the camera at a shutter speed slower than 1/focal length. VR provides additional stabilisation, allowing crisp images to be captured up to 4 shutter speed settings slower, and it works, I have taken pictures at 1/125s at 300mm. However, I rarely use speeds that slow taking sports action, we can get away with 1/200s, but any slower will usually not freeze enough of the action.

So, when shooting sports I usually turn the VR off. That does not isolate it, and when it goes wrong, it er, vibrates - fortunately only for half a second, after which I can focus normally. After talking to the man in the shop, I decided to see how it develops, as the remedy in any event is to replace the VR unit, which is quite expensive.

It was with my equipment thus impaired that I set off to Prescot Cables' home international friendly against Flint Town United of the Huws Gray Alliance. The weather was much more like we would expect on a summer evening than last week.

Davison Banda

Andy McCoy

With the mixture of bright sunshine and long shadows, the Auto ISO really comes into its own, with lighting conditions varying in a single run or pass.

At this time of year, every week brings sunset 10 - 12 minutes earlier, so the floodlights came on for the second half.

Luke Edwards

With the natural light assisted by the lights early in the half, I did not manage to get rid of a slightly pink hue, but later on, I got the results we expect under the lights.

Matty Parker

I also spoke with our programme editor, Paul Watkinson, who explained that we have new printers this year, which allows a different picture on the cover for each game if we wish, so I will be providing some pictures for that. Paul very wisely (from his point of view) persuaded me to send 2 or 3 from which to choose, in the same way I do with the Liverpool Echo. We will look at the requirements for the programme cover in more detail in a future post, I think it will be a bit different from the paper, whose priority is to have a picture to go with the words, and can be summed up as: 1 - goals, 2 - goal scorers, 3 anything else.

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

What was your name again?

Thus enquired a Buckley Town player of one of his team mates in Prescot Cables' pre season game at the weekend. The question was not confined to the home team: I watched the second half from where the Prescot substitutes were warming up, and introductions were going on there too. Observant readers may have noticed a lack of captions in the last couple of posts for the same reason.

Some players are familiar from the previous season, such as the agile Brian Pilkington.

For the last few seasons for Prescot have played an international friendly. Wales is not as international as some places - the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Team were spending the weekend playing the supporters of Altona 93 in Hamburg. However, it has caught out the odd English club in the past, who have not read the page in their League handbooks where it reminds them that players whose last club was under the jurisdiction of the Football Association of Wales need international clearance to play in England. Unless you attract the attention of the Prime Minister, failure to comply results in a points deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

One of the hazards of travelling independently (particularly when planning to pop in to the local ruined castle on the way) is negotiating the maze of local bus fares. Operators do not always help: Arriva's map of their North West (of England) area is a bit vague as to how much is included across the border. Mold appears to be in, and the driver confused me by suggesting all of North Wales was included (it isn't), although maps issued in Chester may have "here be dragons" somewhere near Gwernaffield. Had I used their "bus tickets 2 ur mobile" application, I would have probably overpaid by getting a ticket that includes the coast.

Buckley play in the Huws Gray Alliance (leagues seem to like names other than "League", but, as Prescot played for many years in the Lancashire Combination, I cannot complain). The Alliance attracts similar crowds to the EvoStik League, but ground grading requirements are not as strict. For example, the fence does not need to prevent viewing of the game from outside the ground, which means a view can be obtained from inside across into England and the Cheshire Plain, and the steam from the Stanlow Oil Refinery.

Looking around the ground, it seemed that Buckley are keen to progress to the Welsh Premier League, as there was ample evidence of improvements in progress - new turnstiles waiting to be installed, and a newly concreted area that looked as though it was being prepared for covered standing, in addition to the two fairly new prefabricated stands already installed.

The pleasant weather seemed to have had an effect, as this was a much better performance than in the humidity at Wigan in midweek.

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