Supporting the supporters

On the way to Dulwich Hamlet's game against Worthing I posted about here, I photographed the game between the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Team and our hosts, the Worthing Supporters.

I had not planned to be at this game - I have been to see Dulwich games on the south coast over the last year, each time thinking this would be a good time to meet an old school friend after his son's football training in Redhill, only to find engineering works meaning I would not be able to manage that and get to the game. So, I was ready to arrange a meeting, until a quick check revealed ... er ... engineering works meaning I would not be able to manage that and get to the game.

So, it was time to take up the opportunity to attend a supporters' game, in a strictly non playing capacity. Our hosts had booked a pitch on a recreation ground on the outskirts of the town, with a most unusual arrangement of trees in the lane alongside.

The purpose of the Dulwich Supporters' Team is to promote Dulwich Hamlet, and promote friendship with other teams. So, it is open to all ages and abilities. A typical side will contain a couple of good young players, some good players well struck in years, and some making no claims to ability who enjoy turning out. The Supporters can even boast a player with a First Team appearance, Shaun Dooley having appeared in a pre season friendly back in the nineties.

Age is no barrier, from the youngest player on the day (although nowhere near the youngest to have turned out for the team), Callum Smith,

to the oldest, Mark Hutton.

I have taken pictures for a couple of games of this type when some of my colleagues organised them at work. I have found that if I take enough pictures, I can be confident of getting everyone doing something that looks good. After one of the work games, I showed a colleague a picture of what I thought was him scoring a goal (which he had done). It looked great, controlling the ball, the goalkeeper committing himself to go the wrong way, but he remembered it differently, "Ah, that's the one the other end where I missed and fell flat on my arse".

Trying to get a couple of decent photos of everyone means I take a lot more pictures than I would at a club game. The game is a lot less predictable than a club game - a club has a pattern the manager will want to play, the players will train and play together two or three times a week. Even the regular players in the Supporters' Team only play together every few weeks, and players drop in and out as work, family and other circumstances dictate.

I needed to make sure I did not slip into "club photographer" mode and just concentrate on the Dulwich players, but to make sure I got some of the Worthing players as well.

The usual guideline I adopt for the size of the album goes out of the window, everyone will want to see themselves and their friends in action, so I went for publishing almost all the decent shots, whilst strictly maintaining the rule that the dodgy ones never see the light of day. I hope the players enjoyed the game as much as I enjoyed working on the photos.

The rest of the photos can be seen here.

It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk

... ah, wrong sport again.

Normally by this stage of a season I will have been to London a couple of times to watch Dulwich Hamlet. However, for one reason and another, I have been occupied at home in Liverpool this year, so this weekend was my first Dulwich game of the season, away to Worthing.

Worthing played "Sussex by the Sea" as the teams took to the field. It is an inspiring tune, sometimes described as the county's unofficial anthem, leaving one wondering whether to stand to attention or look for a flag going up somewhere. Not that it makes a lot of sense in the whole county, but that is another story.

The Supporters' Teams of Dulwich and Worthing had played in the morning (more on that in a future post), when Sussex had reportedly been warmer than Syria. Fortunately for the first team, the temperature had dropped by the afternoon. I was quite pleased too, as I had to rush to get to the ground. I found after the supporters' game that my spare SD card had less gigabytes than I thought, the town centre is some distance from the station, and then there was a stop for fish and chips. It's rude not to when you are at the seaside, and if I will have the plaice ...

The floodlights, which looked as though they were of Blue Square South standard, were on from kick off, but it gets dark earlier in Worthing than I am used to in Liverpool. It is only 4 minutes' difference now (according to the US Naval Observatory's Civil Twilight tables), but I always get caught out by the half an hour's difference when I go south in the summer. Regular readers may think I have a thing about floodlights, but they affect most of what the photographer is able to do at this time of year.

The sports mode on the camera did not work very well, so I went straight to shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/320s. For the first half, this allowed me to use the full range of the lens, and capture shots the full length of the pitch.

As I was photographing mainly for Dulwich supporters (and any photos the club and their local paper, the Southwark News, may want to use), all the considerations in the last post about constructing an album apply, with one complicating factor - I recognise less than half the players. It takes me about 3 - 4 weeks to get used to new Prescot players, watching them twice a week, so having watched Dulwich only 5 or 6 times last season, I know those who have been in the team for a year or two, but am a bit hazy on the rest.

Dulwich have made a good start to the season, maintaining a challenge for the top spot, and Worthing have had a run of form keeping them in contention for the playoff places. This showed in pace and skill, with the players of both sides making full use of the available space and passing options, which made even me feel a bit energetic keeping up with play.

It was therefore surprising that no-one noticed until the second half that a passing fox had left a message on the edge of one penalty area.

I come from a rural area, but the only time I have seen a fox is at East Dulwich station, near Dulwich Hamlet's ground - outside the big cities the fox tends to be observed more by a trail of damage. As I was leaving, the groundsman was lifting the goalnets and wrapping them in industrial strength plastic sheeting to protect them from the attentions of our vulpine chums.

The natural light lasted quite well, so I was able to maintain the 1/320s shutter speed well into the  second half.

I then dropped down to 1/250s, and then to 1/200s, with the high standard of the floodlights, and Dulwich's continuing to press forward at every opportunity ensured that I could capture some good images, even from behind the goal, right up to the end of the game.

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