Category Archives: Sport

May 15 2022
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Daily Post, Sport

Watching the people watching the game

Saturday 14th May 2022, 2.25pm (day 3,915)

Lower Hopton FC, 14/5/22

On a glorious Saturday afternoon in May I personally can’t think of anything much better to do than sit down on the edge of a small field and watch people run around playing football. Or in the case of this shot, it’s more watching the people watching the football, as I like the variety of positions they adopt. The kid sat on top of the dugout stayed there for the entire match. Taken at Lower Hopton FC, whose battle to remain in the ‘Supreme’ division of the Yorkshire Amateur League was not harmed by coming back from 2-0 down to snatch a point against visitors Wortley. This was all a lot more fun than the tedious crap served up by the millionaires at Wembley later in the day, for sure.

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Apr 10 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape, Sport

Start of the second half

Saturday 9th April 2022, 3.00pm (day 3,880)

Midgley United, 9/4/22

Ivy House FC (of Halifax) come out for the start of the second half at the rather picturesque, if basic, ground of Midgley United. They were 1-0 down at this point but recovered for the draw. But who cares about the game today? I went for the landscape, and it did not disappoint.

Midgley has appeared once before on the blog, on 17th December 2013, day 845. Returning after 3,035 days, this little village on the hillside between home and Halifax now takes over (from Nottingham) as the place with the longest gap between appearances.

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Apr 08 2022
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Daily Post, Sport

The Cup Winners

Thursday 7th April 2022, 9.35pm (day 3,878)

Brighouse win the Cup, 7/4/22

Brighouse Town celebrate winning the West Riding County Cup — and against Leeds United, no less. The need for a penalty shootout was just an additional hurdle of no consequence. They look happy about it, and rightly so; as was I, this being the first time I have ever actually seen a club I follow win a Cup of any description. There are worse ways to spend a Thursday evening in south-west Leeds.

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Feb 12 2022
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Daily Post, Sport

Substitution at Crowborough

Saturday 12th February 2022, 3.20pm (day 3,824)

Deal substitution, 12/2/22

A substitution at, but not for, Crowborough Athletic FC; however, the guys in the retro black-and-white hoops are the visitors, Deal Town. This was an early substitution due to injury but it didn’t matter, as they went on to win 3-0.

This was a nostalgia trip in one way — the 6-hour journey from Yorkshire being explained by the fact that Crowborough is the town where I grew up, and lived until 1988 (as I have noted on this blog before). But until today I had never seen their principal football team, Athletic, play a game. So this is both familiar and brand new at the same time. And I liked it, though always, whenever I come back here, I am reminded how high up in the air it is (the ground is 550 feet above sea level) and thus how cold, even on a sunny February day. The south-east of England is by no means semi-tropical — northerners take note.

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Feb 02 2022
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Daily Post, Interior, Sport

The blacks and the whites

Tuesday 1st February 2022, 7.05pm (day 3,813)

Pub chess game, 1/2/22

Serious combat in the Railway this evening. Somehow black and white photography seems appropriate for this subject matter.

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Jan 16 2022
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Daily Post, Sport

Kiveton Miners Welfare FC

Saturday 15th January 2022, 3.20pm (day 3,796)

Kiveton MW v Sheffield, 15/1/22

Forty or more years ago, in the background of this image would once have been a colliery. Not any more, but the name and very existence of Kiveton Miners Welfare FC pays homage to the vanished industry. A cold day in South Yorkshire, but the sun came out in the second half and washed everything in gold, so I forgave it.

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Jan 06 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape, Sport

The Dee estuary (and golfers)

Wednesday 5th January 2022, 12.20pm (day 3,786)

Dee estuary and golfers, 5/1/22

Anybody who thought I might spend a second consecutive day of bright winter sunshine ‘working from home’ obviously doesn’t know me very well. I guess the same applies to these three guys, though they enjoy here a form of sporting entertainment that’s not for me.

This is taken on the west coast of the Wirral peninsula. The river is the Dee, and the land in the background is Wales. Visible on the horizon is Moel Famau, where I spent a rather good day last June, doing the same thing as I did today — bagging a County Top walk. I guess this counts as a photo where one can definitely see the territory of two different countries, as long as you non-Britons accept that England and Wales are different places (which they are, in many ways).

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Dec 28 2021
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Daily Post, Sport

Dugout at Silsden

Tuesday 28th December 2021, 2.45pm (day 3,778)

A far more pleasant afternoon than has been the case recently. The sun is on its way down on 2021 in football terms, with the venue for my last match of the year — Silsden FC — doused in sunshine as everyone prepared for the game. (Not that visitors Knaresborough can have prepared very well, as Silsden won 8-1.)

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Dec 12 2021
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Daily Post, Sport

Substitute

Sunday 12th December 2021, 2.35pm (day 3,762)

Sunderland substitute, 12/12/21

Fifteen or so minutes to go in the Brighouse v Sunderland game, in the Women’s FA Cup Third Round. Sunderland make a change. Sadly, despite valiant efforts our team Brighouse lost this one to the visitors from the division above. Good effort, but not quite enough.

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Nov 07 2021
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Daily Post, Sport

The things we do to pass the time

Saturday 6th November 2021, 3.20pm (day 3,726)

Warley Rangers, 6/11/21

This was supposed to be my last full day here before travelling, but bad weather has meant my flight being postponed 24 hours. That probably means bad weather in St Helena, but my experience outdoors in Yorkshire today suggests the conditions might spread up the whole of the Atlantic, frankly — this afternoon was dreadful, with rain and high winds.

None of which stopped 23 (including the referee) madmen in shorts competing this afternoon in division 2 of the Halifax and District Football League — or me (and about five other people) choosing to watch them. Here at Warley Rangers you are only fifteen promotions, and a few ground improvements, from the Premier League, so it still matters.

This is Wainhouse Tower‘s second appearance on the blog — the world’s tallest folly, dontcha know.

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