Rwy'n hoffi bod ar lan y môr

... Google Translate for "I do like to be beside the seaside". This Saturday saw an eagerly awaited pre season game for Prescot Cables away to Rhyl.

James McCulloch

Rhyl has been a popular resort for those in the Liverpool area, although, like many seaside towns, it has seen better days. With demand for a day out making it viable, there was a coach, which gives newer players chance to get to know some of the supporters. For the Train Crew, there was also a good turnout. There is an assumption about the town's clientèle, I got a funny look from the chap in the combined shop and ticket office at Moorfields station when I bought a copy of the Guardian and a day return to Rhyl.

With Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, arriving on a later train, and therefore unable to keep us on the right path, we found the first pub out of the station, a cheap and cheerful establishment with friendly service, but not a product range that would trouble the editors of the Good Beer Guide.

Rhyl will play this season in the Welsh Premier League, so this was an unusual away game for us, we would more usually travel to a side in the Huws Gray Cymru Alliance, which Rhyl won last season. Rhyl hosted Champions League football as recently as 2009, losing to FK Partizan of Belgrade, which explained the UEFA flag.

I was less sure about the flag the pre-1282 kingdom of Gwynedd, which is used by the National Assembly of Wales, and is the basis of the personal standard of the Prince of Wales (which has a coronet in the middle). I am not sure if this is also an unofficial flag of north Wales.

The ground has a capacity of 3000 with 1720 seats. I have no difficulty with the figure for seats, but I am not sure where that leaves for 1280 people to stand: most of the space was either in front of seats or in what seemed to be passageways. There was also a small standing area outside the bar, to which the Train Crew naturally gravitated.

This appeared to be the only area outside where drinking was permitted, although even this will cease in the regular season, as the Welsh Premier League is covered by the legislation prohibiting drinking in sight of the pitch.

The conditions were excellent for photography, with the pitch perimeter fence being the right height to support my arms and camera. The sun was slightly hazy, allowing good shutter speeds without casting deep shadows, and the stands were quite low, so there were few shadows on the pitch. It was also a well fought game, with plenty of the competition for the ball that we need for good photos.

In many ways, North Wales has more links with North West England than with South Wales, and there is regular movement of players between the countries. One such is Chris Rimmer, who played the first half of last season for us. When he joined us from St Helens Town, he had a tendency to lose concentration and drift out of position, but playing alongside Ged Murphy helped to address that, and he looks like he will be a good addition to the Welsh Premier next year.

Chris Rimmer chases Isaac Kusoloka, but cannot prevent him shooting for goal

At half time, I was talking to one of our party attending his first Cables game, who had thought about bringing his camera (a Canon apparently, but you cannot have everything). He enjoyed his day, so I encouraged him to take some pictures when he comes again. In the meantime, he coped with my vibrating vibration reduction unit, and got me a picture of our first half goalkeeper in the half time warm up.

Lee Novak. Photo by Sam Auty, crop by me.

The second half saw many substitutions by both managers. I am not sure who is taking the corner here, watched by the rather lugubrious linesman. Note that the match officials have radio communication.

After the game, pub choices seemed to be dictated by the simple expedient of going in the next one we came to, not my usual method, but as good as any in something of a real ale desert, and it made for an enjoyable evening.

The rest of the pictures 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.