New Mills, old hills

I was unusually gung-ho this weekend about the prospects of Prescot Cables' game away at New Mills going ahead: with not much rain having fallen during the week, I had no inkling there would be a pitch inspection shortly before midday, by which time I was on a train climbing towards the Derbyshire hills.

I decided to make the best of the scenery, so I got off at Strines, and walked to a pub I had found on the CAMRA WhatPub site, the Fox Inn in the hamlet of Brookbottom.

The Fox Inn - 50 yards outside Greater Manchester

The entry suggests the pub is close to a railway station, which is true, it is about half a mile, although one needs a modicum of fitness to make the trip, up a steep bridleway. Once inside its foot thick walls, I enjoyed an immaculately kept pint of Robinsons' Dizzy Blonde, in what I might also describe as immaculately kept surroundings. I may have been sitting in one of the regulars' seats, as an elderly couple came in, and the gentleman was casting rather confused looks in my direction until his wife chose a table.

Had the weather been less pleasant, I would have stayed for a while, but I decided exercise was in order, and walked to the Pack Horse, a mile away up and down another hill, then on to the ground, another mile or so, involving descending to the level of the River Sett, and up another hill. I was glad to reach the town and its pavements: whilst I am used to walking country roads, I am used to a hedge in which to shelter from any passing cars that get a bit close, whereas dry stone walls look a bit less yielding.

I arrived five minutes before the scheduled kick off to find warming up still in progress. The match referee had not been happy with some areas of the pitch, and was minded to call the game off, but was prepared to accept sand being spread on the affected areas. Unfortunately, there was no sand on the premises, and a trip to the nearest builders' merchants in this part of the world is not as quick as you might at first think. Still, at least I got pictures of Manager Dave Powell and Assistant Manager Carl Furlong taking training.

Dave Powell

Carl Furlong

The original date for this fixture was the first of January's postponements. Quite a few of our Train Crew planned to travel on that occasion, but our numbers were depleted this time by some of our regulars jetting off on foreign holidays, and some taking the train to what might be a foreign holiday next season - in Scotland.

Not that we were short of supporters who travel on the coach or by car.

Dave, Cliff, Ken and Peter keep a close watch on Dave Dempsey

Players move between clubs all the time, so it is no surprise to encounter former players in the opposition line up. Mike Smith moved to New Mills earlier in the season, and was as energetic, and appeared as much in the frame, as he did when playing for us.

Connor McCarthy gets away from Mike Smith

With so few games over the last few weeks, we have not experienced the gradual extension of daylight, instead jumping from a dark second half to full daylight in a couple of jumps. Even with the delay for purchasing sand (kick off eventually occurring at 3.25), there was a decent amount of daylight right to the end.

The floodlights were on on one side for the first half, and both sides for the second. As is often the case, this gave some pictures a blue cast, which in the more extreme cases I tried to remove, you can judge for yourself how natural the end result looks.

Robert Gilroy - colour not adjusted

Phil Bannister - colour adjusted

We were disappointed not to come away with the first away win of the season, although, when we had not been able to score downhill in the first half, I thought we might find it even more difficult to do so uphill in the second. Still, all points are useful, and we kept a clean sheet and therefore avoided a defeat that would have improved the hosts' position at our expense.

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

Final score: New Mills 0 Prescot Cables 0

Frozen shoulder, but fortunately not a frozen pitch

Prescot Cables' game at home to Northwich Victoria last week came after a weekend with no sport for me. Cables had no fixture, and all the rugby and football clubs I like to watch if Cables are not playing were away, with the nearest being Birkenhead Park at Broughton Park in Manchester.

With little rain on Monday and Tuesday, there was a successful pitch inspection at 4.30pm, with only light rain forecast before the match. This fell as snow, leaving a light covering on the pitch. Some were hoping for an orange ball, but our league does not even have a yellow ball. It's grim up north.

Connor McCarthy

I picked up a frozen shoulder over the weekend, a general problem I have had for years, and a cause of merely minor inconvenience. Purely for photography, it is fortunately the right: when holding the camera, the left, which just crunches, takes most of the weight, and I hold my arms close to my chest, for stability, and so the weight of the camera goes through my legs and feet, rather than the arms and shoulders. Had the problem been with the left arm, I might have been heading to the shop for a monopod, or, as my friend Jon the Pharmacologist succinctly described it when I was explaining why a tripod does not give enough freedom of movement for zooming in with still photography, "so, basically a stick, then".

He thought a tripod might be useful to counteract shivering on a cold evening, but I do not shiver at games as much as I used to. That may have something to do with being old enough to follow your grandmother's advice, and wear a coat... and a jacket... and a jumper... and a shirt... and a t-shirt... and a scarf... and a hat - advice not followed by a Northwich supporter behind the goal.

Adam Reid with Danny Jarrett

Our resident photography student thought the reflected light from the snow was worth about half a stop (half an exposure value), which makes all the difference using consumer kit, making the results that bit less grainy ...

Robert Gilroy

... and getting results from places like near the touchlines.

James Cairns

He reported that his batteries were suffering in the cold, with three having run out of charge. I had no problem, although I shoot in jpg, whereas I assume he was using raw, which uses more read/write capacity and therefore power. As his primary interest was pictures rather than play, he headed off at half time, with my parting comment being that anyone who thought the evening was cold had clearly never been to North Ferriby.

When I started watching football, I remember different disciplinary suspensions applied at our level from the full time professional game. In the Football and Premier League, a player receiving a red card would receive a three match suspension, similar to today. In the semi professional game a player would be suspended for 28 or 35 days, usually a lot longer than three matches. These were brought into line a few years later, but the effect at this time of year can be more severe than the old system. Suspension is from all football until the team for which the player incurred the sanction have completed three matches. Dave Dempsey was returning from a suspension that began between Christmas and New Year, and Antony Shinks still has one game to go of a suspension that started on 4th January, following a red card at Salford City two weeks previously. At the time of writing, if the game away to New Mills goes ahead at the weekend, the weather will have extended it to 49 days.

Dave Dempsey returns to action

An early goal from the visitors before I had had got round to the gasworks side did not bode well, but Prescot exerted some good pressure to be level at half time with a penalty from Connor McCarthy. A second half substitution bringing on James McCulloch (who had been unable to start due to work commitments, and was mercilessly ribbed by his father when he arrived to join the bench) and Rob Doran paid off with a goal from Rob to collect all three points.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (McCarthy, Doran) Northwich Victoria 1

More mud than last week's rugby

I have detailed before how planning to watch a game at this time of year involves almost constant monitoring of the weather. For Prescot Cables' visit from Mossley at the weekend, the rain on Friday night and Saturday morning (for the fifth week in a row) was less heavy than forecast, so the pitch passed an inspection at 10.30. Showers at lunchtime were lighter than expected, so everything was looking good when I arrived in Prescot a few minutes before kick off.

However, in the time it took me to get off the bus, buy a paper and go to the ground, the heavy rain forecast for 3 - 6pm well and truly arrived. The game got under way, with the pitch looking as though it had benefited from a rest, with only two AFC Liverpool games and none of ours on it during January.

There were a few changes since we last played a month ago. Rob Doran made a welcome return to the starting lineup, having returned from injury with a substitute appearance on New Year's Day.

A couple of familiar faces from previous seasons joined us on loan - Richie Mottram in goal, on loan from Runcorn Linnets ...

... and Danny Jarrett in defence, on loan from Rhyl.

I am not sure how easily that works: Danny will have needed international clearance (confirmation from the FA under whose jurisdiction the player has most recently played that he is not suspended) when he joined us, and will need it before he can play for Rhyl again. With half of the population of Wales living within 25 miles of England, and a similar number of people living in the same distance of Wales, the level of movement probably makes it it quite efficient. The same is not the case for true international moves, we had to wait a couple of weeks before Pavel Pinto-Vieira could play for us after playing in Portugal.

The rain continued steadily for the whole of the half.

Jordan Shirley & James McCulloch

It is difficult for players to judge a tackle in these conditions, the slightest misjudgement could give away a free kick in an advantageous position, but hesitation can allow the bold attacker to get past. Mossley's Lewis Nightingale took advantage of the difficulty to get past a number of our players (Mossley's website said at least six, which is a bit of an exaggeration) and supply the ball to Tom Pratt for the only goal of the game.

I had taken up position under the cover at the Hope Street end, from where I could watch a pool of standing water by the corner flag increasing in size. Keith was busy with the fork and the broom at half time to clear the water.

The referee made a further inspection at the end of half time, and decided to proceed. Whilst it meant Keith's efforts were not in vain, I am not sure about the wisdom of the decision: although it had stopped raining briefly, the pitch was by now soft. The home team has an advantage in this situation, there will often be a spare kit available, allowing the players to change in to dry kit at half time.

Lloyd Balazs

We used a kit from a couple of seasons ago that had to be replaced as it was too heavy, the players were becoming overheated, particularly on a warm day. As this was anything but a warm day, it seemed a good occasion to use it. I wondered how reflective it would be in the middle of the winter: despite the cloud having lifted for a while, I found my exposures were not as good as with the current kit.

I took up position behind the goal at the Safari Park End, but soon scuttled back under the stand when it started raining again. Everyone was liberally covered in mud by the end.

Phil Bannister

I have to hand it to the players of both sides for giving us a competitive match  in difficult conditions, but completing the game will have made the pitch more prone to waterlogging for the next few weeks. Fortunately the weather was kinder than usual up to Christmas, so we do not currently have a large fixture backlog.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Mossley 1.

Watching Liverpool FC ... no, not that one

The Prescot Cables Train Crew were approaching our trip to Radcliffe Borough last weekend with some anticipation. This would be our first away trip, indeed our first game, since New Year's Day. We even had a new leader in beer and pub choices, Richie having delegated duties for the day to Luke, one of our pharmacologists, who is from Prestwich, and who could therefore use local knowledge. This was despite his mainly drinking cider with ice, although he does have the real stuff when it is available. As an aside, why did ice in cider take off? From being unheard of when I was Luke's age, 20 years ago, it became ubiquitous, to the point that a few years ago, my friend Roger had to stop the barman reaching to the ice bucket for his pint of the local real stuff in Worcester, where you might expect them to be more traditionally minded.

What is becoming a rather monotonous pattern of weather, with heavy rain on Friday night, put paid to that, with the game at Radcliffe having been called off after an early pitch inspection. So, with Birkenhead Park having made use of my photos from my last visit, I made my way back. Having commented that one of the constituents of Liverpool St Helens FC was the original club to hold the name of Liverpool FC, I found they were the opposition this weekend.

Before I set out, there was a downpour that worked its way across the country, reaching the Midlands, Yorkshire and London during the time for football, causing some matches to be abandoned as five minutes' rain deposited pools of standing water on pitches.

At Birkenhead, most of the water seemed to have soaked in. The game started with the kit looking pristine.

We can see the roof of the changing rooms in this picture - I assume the slipped tiles are from successful conversions, although a couple out of the picture to the left must have come from some very wayward attempts - or successful ones from a very tight angle.

The state of the ground meant nobody stayed spotless for long ...

... even the scrum halves, whose duties involve staying on their feet more than many other players, were starting to look a bit muddy.

It was clear quite quickly that the home side were going to dominate this game, having gained the bonus point for scoring four tries within the first half hour.

When I was selecting the photographs for the slide show, I very quickly switched into "club" mode. Although I tend to follow my local side even when I am visiting a club I do not usually support, when I am planning to use the photographs just for my own audience, I will pick some individual shots of the visiting players. Once I know I am working for a club audience, I concentrate heavily on the home side.

Eric the webmaster asked me light heartedly to look out for his son, who was playing in the second row. Fortunately he had a good game, scoring a try ...

... and then giving a (much needed in view of the wind) hand in converting it.

As well as the wind, we had a short hailstorm, which always makes for a good photo effect, although less good for the players, or for the person of the photographer for that matter.

The sun came out for the last few minutes of the game, although that did not mean conditions were any easier, the wind was still gusting strongly, mainly to the disadvantage of the visiting team. Here is one of their players taking a kick from his own in goal area.

After a gust of wind caught it as it was in mid air over the 22 metre line, it ended back more or less where it started.

Heavily one sided games in any sport are never really the best, apart from for bragging rights for the players and supporters, The rest of the pictures from the sort of game at which I am glad to have something to do can be seen here.

Final score: Birkenhead Park 73 Liverpool St Helens 7

Over the hills and far away

With the weather performing the same feat for a third week in a row, namely a dry start to the week with heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday morning, there was once again no game for Prescot Cables, and therefore another rugby game for me. My options were limited, with National League 3 and below taking a week's break. Rather than having a long winter break, this seems a sensible way to organise fixtures, as it gives clubs the opportunity to play games that have had to be postponed, but avoids a long lay off when pitches are playable followed by a string of further postponements.

National League 2 had a full programme, however, so it was off to Caldy, who were at home to Otley: this blog always enjoys a visit from Yorkshirepersons. I have been before, but I was trying a new route, getting off the bus at Frankby and walking over the hill towards Thurstaston. Given that getting lost on the way to the club once spawned a whole photo project, this might have been setting the afternoon's entertainment at risk. I indeed got the timings a bit wrong, arriving about 15 minutes in to the game. No-one was posted to collect admission fees from latecomers, so I got in for free.

I am not sure what the home side did to the opposition, but they looked scary enough to me.

Both sides were keen to give us a robust game.

Both sides, but particularly Otley, made extensive use of the maul. This is when the ball is in a group of players with the ball carrier on his feet, and in this case the side with the ball uses weight of numbers to push forwards. At least, I think that is what was going on. It is a good piece of action to watch, as there is a fair amount of sheer power involved, but less useful for the photographer, as the ball tends to be hidden by the players.

Contrast where the ball is being fed back to be passed to the backs.

 It was an overcast day, the automatic white balance on the camera left the original photos looking a washed out. This can be corrected to a certain extent on the computer, but this left the players' faces with a somewhat pinkish hue, more than was actually the case despite the wind giving everyone a weathered appearance.

We saw in our last game how the law that the ball be put in straight at the scrum is to be strictly enforced - both the referee and the opposing scrum half were looking closely to see this was being done.

With Otley having had the lead for most of the game, Caldy came back with a late try and this conversion to clinch the result.

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

Final score: Caldy 26 Otley 25.

Padding the timetable

One hazards of travelling by train to fixtures you may attend often enough to remember the time of the train, but not often enough to keep fully on top of small changes, is finding that the timetable has undergone a bit of padding. Last week was the first time I had been to watch Firwood Waterloo for a couple of seasons, last season had too many weekends with no sport at all. So, the 15 minute journey that, with a seven minute walk from the station, meant the right train could get me there as the game kicked off, had now changed to 20 minutes, so at kick off time I was trailing along the road in the wake of a sprightly elderly gent, with the unmistakable sound of a game coming from the ground.

I arrived to find the game against Sale FC in full progress in bright coastal sunshine.

When I was at school, there was a chap a couple of years above me, known to all as Wilf, who had an optical prescription heading into double figures, and whose talents were most definitely in the academic direction. A mutual friend told me of a PE lesson where he received the ball, sprinted for the line, deposited it in the appropriate manner, wondering why he had encountered no opposition, only to find he had placed the ball over the touch line. I am sure Waterloo's Freeman Payne was unlikely to do the same, but the coach seemed keen to make sure.

It had the desired effect, resulting in a superb individual try.

The scrum is something of a mixed blessing for the photographer - players are in one place and not moving too quickly, but there is a limit to how many scrum photos you want from one game. The sequence of engagement has been revised - the "crouch, pause, touch, engage" sequence, where, if the referee was a bit slow, the last step could be a statement of fact rather than an instruction, has been replaced by "crouch, bind, set".

This is to ensure the packs are in contact before they start pushing, with the aim of reducing the risk of neck injury. Referees are instructed to ensure the law that the ball is to be put in straight is strictly enforced.

This has the result that the opposing hookers compete in hooking for the ball with their feet. When the changes were introduced, there were complaints from Premiership coaches that their hookers had long since lost the skill of hooking, which was met with a typically forthright observation from Daily Telegraph correspondent and former England hooker Brian Moore that the clue to the function of the position was in the name, and that they should find it again. From my somewhat inexpert observations, this seems to have made the scrum a more genuine contest, albeit with a strong advantage to the side putting in. In this game I noticed the ball being won by the side not putting in twice in as many minutes (once for each side), which I would not have expected in the past

One aspect that leaves me confused is what a player who has been tackled is allowed to do with the ball on the ground. I thought the player simply had to release it, but these days you seem to be allowed to hold it in a convenient position for your team mates.

I wondered whether this was just my memory, but I was not alone: I was standing in front of a group of former players who looked to be in their forties, as I am, and they were reminiscing about how it was better in the days when you just let go of the ball.

The game was a bit one sided in places, as you might expect with Sale chasing the title and Waterloo competing to avoid relegation, although Waterloo still managed a couple of good tries.

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

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 13 Sale 45

A trip to the park

A few years ago, I was visiting a friend from school and his young son. He was an intelligent chap (and still is, I hasten to add), and I was soon on my hands and knees showing him how to shunt the carriages on his train set. I was regaled with how, after I left they went to the local park and played football for a few hours, attracting a large group to join in by the end. Then, one visit, he had a video game. Everything seemed to have changed: "Morning Luke" "Mm", "How are you?" "Ug". I thought all was lost, until, half an hour later, he looked up and asked brightly, "When are we going to the park Daddy?".

Last weekend took me to a local park, or at least a ground in one, with the weather making finding a place to watch sport a fluid situation. The report from New Mills, where Prescot Cables had been due to play, was that much work had been put in to the pitch on Friday, but it was likely to be in vain if the forecast rain fell overnight.

When the game was called off before I needed to set out, the options were rugby at Caldy or Birkenhead Park. Caldy were advertising a 3pm kick off, which seemed odd, as I do not recall their having floodlights. So, I decided to get off the bus (it is the same route to both grounds for me) at Birkenhead Park for their 2.15 kick off against Kirkby Lonsdale, with its guarantee that we would still be able to see what was going on by the end.

Birkenhead Park are one of the oldest clubs in the area, with their socks proclaiming they were founded in 1871.

Note the initials over the clubhouse door.

Rugby was the first football code to take hold in the Liverpool area, with many older clubs in the area carrying the suffix "FC". Liverpool FC were less than amused when the exponents of the non handling game helped themselves to their name without so much as a by your leave, and the merged Liverpool St Helens club maintains the "FC" tradition.

The ground is on the edge of the park from which the club takes its name. The park side terrace has become covered with grass.

In football, FA requirements would insist this be fenced off, but rugby is more inclined to trust their spectators to make their own assessment of the state of the ground. I made my way round, as it was less populated than the street side, and gave me freedom to move up and down with the flow of the game.

As it was a cold, damp day, everyone could see their breath, which, when 16 blokes have been running and gather for a scrum, that means a certain amount of steam, all good for a photo.

The ground had floodlights. Although we could probably have managed without, they were turned on for the second half, which made the camera work easier, such as in this shot about half an hour in, so at about 3.30.

The sun made an appearance in the last few minutes of the game, so after the final whistle, I hopped on the bus to West Kirby to catch the sunset.

When I had uploaded the pictures, I sent a link to the club webmaster, who sent a nice note back saying he had enjoyed the photos, particularly as his son was playing, and that he would put them on the website. He also put the programme editor in touch - I am always pleased when a club has a use for my photos. The club have a Pitchero website, which used to be easy for photo sharing, you uploaded them yourself, and the webmaster then approved them for publication. I do not know if they were getting inundated with images, including spam, but you now need to declare yourself a player, parent or official club member (which of course I am not) in order to request permission to upload.

The rest of the pictures from an end to end game, with the teams never more than one score apart, can be seen here.

Final score: Birkenhead Park 17 Kirkby Lonsdale 15.