This is the kind of photo that only really works if I’ve got the pitch truly horizontal; I think I have. There wasn’t much else to this venue apart from this view taken as I was leaving, but it sums it up reasonably well.
I said yesterday that grim as it was, the forecast was for improvement, and the sun duly shone on me and 309 other people who spent their Tuesday evening at the ground of Trafford FC, a few miles west of Manchester city centre. Perhaps not the biggest club located in their metropolitan borough (I’m sure most people could name the biggest if they thought about it for a minute): but a friendly one. I chose this shot today because of the excellent rim-light, but also the woman laughing in the middle. At least — I think she’s laughing.
One to add to the ‘superlatives’ at the bottom of the stats page, the next time I update it. Hallam FC have been around, as the stand says, since 1860, and have always played here, at Sandygate, in the west of Sheffield. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this makes this place the oldest football ground in the world. Hallam are the second-oldest club, after Sheffield FC: I guess it made sense to start no. 2 fairly near to no. 1, after all, they needed someone to play. (What the third-oldest club — Cray Wanderers, from Kent — did at first with their playing time is not as yet recorded.)
What better things are there to do on a Saturday than watch some footie? The dog may or may not agree but it looks interested enough. Taken at Penicuik Athletic FC, and Penicuik, just south of Edinburgh, thereby becomes the 435th different place to feature on here; expect a few more new locations to turn up over the next week…
Third post in a week to be taken in the garden, but it’s still sunny and there’s not much else going on that offers a change of scene. This tennis ball has been sat pretty much in the same position for weeks now, and both Clare and I have acknowledged that neither of us have the slightest idea where it came from. It offers an opportunity for a still life, nevertheless.
An official run as well, hence the steward directing them up Lees Road. Around 9.5km to go, including up to Heptonstall, which is a considerable effort even at walking pace. Taken from inside my place, so apologies for the reflections, telephone wire, etc.
It’s all over. In the rain that came down for most of the second half, the players of Ashington celebrate with their travelling fans, having won the play-off match 3-0. They get promoted, while hosts Glossop North End are relegated. Number 12 feels the pain.
When this weekend in London was organised I had no idea that the London Marathon was being run this Sunday morning, although with hindsight, this certainly explained the dearth of hotel rooms. Never mind, it was nice to get out (albeit in the rain) to a point on the route relatively near to our accommodation and watch this massive river of people flow past: 45,000 people were participating, and we must have seen at least three-quarters of them come down the Woolwich Road. This photo was taken exactly 12 minutes after the leading men came past, so Amy’s doing pretty well.
Considering that the game being watched involved women footballers, this guy might not even have turned up to play: perhaps he just likes wearing the kit. Dialect note: ‘Eyup’ is Yorkshire for ‘hello’ or ‘what’s happening’.
Two football matches for me today and you might as well have one of them, as the views at both were good — more wide-raning at the first of the day (CE L’Hospitalet) but the close-packed urban scene at UE Sant Andreu was still a good-looking one. A packed crowd of 6,000 — excellent numbers for fifth-tier football. It might not be the Camp Nou but you know, I really do prefer this kind of thing.
Being 42 