Saturday 18th March 2023, 2.15pm (day 4,223)
No apologies for doing the ‘football landscape’ shot today. A magnificent view from the home ground of AFC Crossley — which was up in Illingworth, to the north of Halifax.
Illingworth football landscape
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Sport
Watching the game
Saturday 18th February 2023, 2.30pm (day 4,195)
After an acutely stressful journey home last night I had no desire to get on a train today, so picked up my usual entertainments as close to home as is possible. The Yorkshire Amateur League game on the park got some passing attention from others, but no one stuck around for very long — as you can doubtless tell, it was a damp experience. Even I gave up after an hour or so and went somewhere warmer and drier (namely, the pub).
Football in the sunshine
Monday 2nd January 2023, 3.15pm (day 4,148)
I’m sure 2023 will involve plenty of football matches, just as its immediate predecessors have. It was in 2017 that I started going to at least one a week, and 2022 saw me attend 77 in total. I don’t put every one on here to avoid (too much) repetition but sometimes they deserve to appear, particularly when the light is good, as it was this afternoon at Eccleshill United, based in Bradford and playing at the 9th level of English football. Cold though, as you can see from the breath of the home player in blue, but it is January. End of my Christmas break — sadly, it’s time to go back to work.
Action at Ilkley
Saturday 10th December 2022, 4.15pm (day 4,125)
This time of the year the sun is mostly gone by about 3.45pm and in low light — which includes floodlighting — my camera isn’t going to get any sharp action shots, certainly of football but to be honest even people jogging past the lens will be somewhat blurred. But I think I get away with this one – the impression is of action, the blurring does not really matter. The game was at Ilkley Town FC, the blue-and-yellow blurs scored two late goals to triumph over visitors AFC Blackpool 2-1.
Chadderton FC, Sunday morning
Sunday 30th October 2022, 10.45am (day 4,084)
I’m not even trying to hide the fact that I went to another football match this morning. For a while, the light was good. Better, then, than staying inside. This is how I make my life calculations these days.
Sunday, Calder Holmes Park
Sunday 16th October 2022, 12.25pm (day 4,070)
Tried to get on a train today to go somewhere other than home, but when it turned up 20 minutes late and dangerously overcrowded, I remembered, only then, that Manchester United were at home (not to mention Leeds and Liverpool), and the hourly Sunday service was really not up to the job. I therefore returned home: but there were things to see on Calder Holmes Park that were just as interesting as what I might have encountered elsewhere. So the bad planning (mine, and the train company’s) didn’t matter in the end.
Spectating
Tuesday 11th October 2022, 8.00pm (day 4,065)
I’m not the only one who does this random non-league football thing, you know. In fact this was a pleasant evening, and there are certainly worse things to do on a Tuesday. Taken at Hurst Cross, home of Ashton United FC, during tonight’s game against local rivals Curzon Ashton. This ground has been in continuous use since September 1884, making it one of the oldest football grounds in the world.
Pontefract Collieries FC
Thursday 29th September 2022, 6.35pm (day 4,053)
This afternoon I paid a first-ever visit to the town of Pontefract, which has a significant amount of history, as is first of all indicated by its name of almost pure Latin — pontus fractus means ‘broken bridge’. Its castle was once the second-largest in the country and in its dungeon, King Richard II was starved to death in 1400.
But while I did take pictures of some of this history, in the end I am going with the surreal sight of these mannequin’s legs at the local footie ground. The absurdity of life and its trivia, and all that.
The Astleys, above Sowerby Bridge
Sunday 18th September 2022, 11.00am (day 4,042)
Flat land is at a premium in the valley, so round here, the recreation grounds are built high up: as with the Astleys, a set of one cricket and three football pitches above Sowerby Bridge. There are worse things to do on a Sunday morning.
Brighouse v Worksop
Monday 12th September 2022, 8.10pm (day 4,036)
A slightly familiar scene perhaps, whether generally or specifically to this location and club. But I don’t care. This take on it pleases me and although my lot (in orange) lost 2-0 this was the most pleasant thing about the day.
Being 42 