A rather precarious place to be positioned on a breezy day. But they did get to see the mighty Brighouse Town march to a 3-0 win that keeps them second in the table. And, I won the Golden Goal sweepstake, £30 return on a £1 ticket! Result!
It’s a picture of some aesthetically pleasing trees, honestly. Well, there are enough footie pictures on this blog already, aren’t there?
Before a match at the “Theatre of Dreams”, no less — Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. But this being a ‘big game’, photography opportunities were limited due to not being able to move around, nor, indeed, allowed to bring in a camera any bigger than a small matchbox. This is taken with my old compact rig. I guess I just like the beer (plastic) glasses lined up…. beer and gambling, things to do on a Saturday afternoon (I don’t bet, myself).
For once, a football match captured in passing, rather than one I specifically attended. Calder Holmes Park, in town, is a picturesque spot to get competitive on a Sunday morning. One for the traditionalists…
Yes, there have been a lot of football matches in my 2018 — 55 to be precise. But they can be fertile ground for photography, particularly on a beautiful, sunny day like today. Huddersfield Amateur were the hosts, playing in the ‘Argentina’ kit and winning 4-0.
In the UK Boxing Day (or St Stephen’s Day, or whatever) is traditionally a day for sport, and we were amongst 413 people enjoying the football at Clitheroe FC on a very mild and pleasant afternoon. So were these two — but their levels of enjoyment are less palpable.
These guys — fans of Morpeth Town — look surprisingly cheerful considering they have just come a couple of hundred miles, from Northumberland to Yorkshire, to watch a football match that did not in the end take place. Literally as I arrived at Brighouse Town FC, 2.30pm, the match was called off due to a layer of sleet and hail that had sprayed itself over the pitch from about 2:00. Bummer. I was grumpy, anyway, and I’d only come on a bus from Hebden Bridge.
No apologies for including the football shot today — firstly because I like this one, a matter of being in the right place at the right time, perhaps, but the light is good (despite the splodge of flare in the centre). And also because this is my namesake team scoring, in green and white; Whitworth Valley FC. The opposing keeper nearly reached it — but not quite. This was the fourth of many goals that went past him today. And yes, there have only been 25 minutes played.
With this shot, the well-named, but otherwise not very exciting, town of Whitworth also becomes named location number 250 on the blog. So that’s one new place every 10.5 days or so — that is a decent amount of variety.
Football, and landscape…. a mix that does for me at the moment, though I hope you’re not getting too tired of it. I liked the wavy hedge and the bijou executive accommodation (well, maybe it’s not that) behind one corner at Slyne with Hest FC of the West Lancashire League. Excellent game too (4-3 to the hosts).
This picture needs some explanation. For the second time in a few weeks I visited the Etihad stadium, home of Manchester City, for a football match (there were reasons). While watching City do what they usually do, that is, barely break sweat but win easily, it was easy to be distracted in the first half by the activities of what appeared to be a hawk, or kestrel, that had taken up residence in the roof and kept flying between two of the stands. At one point it clearly dropped something that it was holding in its claws yet still managed to swoop down and catch the prey before it hit the ground (and or landed on someone in row F). I just about managed to capture it here in flight, even if it is not very definable. It may not be all that good a photo but it is still more interesting than the night’s football.
Postscript: As my Facebook friend Margaret pointed out after I posted this, the bird may well have been on professional duty; birds of prey are a good way of keeping the pigeon and other pest population down in a stadium like this.
Being 42 