Tag Archives: football

Sep 09 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Meeting Joe halfway

Saturday 7th September 2024, 4.00pm (day 4,762)

Clare and Joe at Heaton Stannington, 7/9/24

With Joe now living in Dundee we have determined that Newcastle is the halfway point between us, geographically. Hence, this weekend, built around an evening out but also (it being me) a trip to a football match and a chance to laze around in the sunshine on the grassy acres of Heaton Stannington FC (a ground which thoroughly deserves the awards it has received for its beer, by the way).

Of course, the title of this blog has non-geographical implications too, as with all parents and their children. And if you saw pictures of me when I was Joe’s age (21) — this shot, particularly, is like looking at a magical mirror that projects one back in time. That’s me, in the summer of 1991, right there. Only with bigger feet.

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Sep 06 2024
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Daily Post, Sport

Hurst Cross (Ashton United FC)

Thursday 5th September 2024, 8.20pm (day 4,760)

Hurst Cross, 5/9/24

Followers of this blog will be aware that I go to quite a few football matches — tonight being my 53rd of 2024 so far — but I try not to let the theme dominate these daily posts. However, Hurst Cross is a fine example of the genre and worth depicting. It’s been continuously in use by Ashton United since 1884 and so is one of the oldest extant grounds in the world, and a perfectly decent place to spend a Thursday evening, if you ask me.

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Sep 01 2024
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Daily Post, Sport

Main stand, AFC Bentley

Saturday 31st August 2024, 2.55pm (day 4,755)

AFC Bentley stand, 31/8/24

The younger members of the small crowd at AFC Bentley v AFC Phoenix disport themselves in an aesthetically pleasing manner over the little main stand. It would have been very easy for this one to have been cluttered up by a number of things — signs on the back wall, or dangling wires, maybe — but other than at the bottom right corner, these things are not present (and I did consider cropping further, but then the standing couple would have been too near the edge). I doubt any of them particularly cared that the visiting team won on the day, they were just enjoying the sunshine, as was I.

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Aug 18 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

In the clubhouse

Saturday 17th August 2024, 1.45pm (day 4,741)

Pocklington clubhouse, 17/8/24

Apparently this guy is a recently-retired player for Pocklington Town FC — my hosts for the day — and others think his moving on has seriousy degraded the team in question. All this is hearsay. I captured him and his dog in a nice enough way, anyway. Note also: the dartboard behind has no 25 ring. Why, I do not know.

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Jul 21 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Sport, Stranger

The dugout

Saturday 20th July 2024, 3.10pm (day 4,713)

Stafford Rangers dugout, 20/7/24

The substitutes of Stafford Rangers FC ponder the fact that, about ten minutes into their game with a team from a lower division, they are already 1-0 down and are going to go on to lose 4-0. OK, it might have been a pre-season friendly but it’s not a great omen for the season to come. And none of these people were even in the starting XI.

I do wonder what the guy on the left of the shot has seen to distract him: assuming all the others are watching the current action on the pitch, he’s certainly not.

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Jun 21 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Watching Spain v Italy

Thursday 20th June 2024, 4.20pm (day 4,683)

Watching Spain v Italy, 20/6/24

My last day in Toronto. I could say ‘on this trip’ or I could say ‘forever’ and the fact is I don’t know at the moment, ‘cos it’s the future, and as yet undetermined. But I do hope to return.

Waiting out a 6-hour flight delay was made more entertaining by watching Spain v Italy in the Firkin pub on Yonge Street: location for what remains my favourite shot yet taken in Canada, namely this one on 14/10/2021. Both these guys were cheering for the same team, specifically Spain: and both went away happy, as they duly won, 1-0.

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May 28 2024
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Daily Post, Sport

The Final

Tuesday 28th May 2024, 6.30pm (day 4,660)

Gray Trophy final, 28/5/24

Despite having missed out on all of the last seven weeks, I am not giving up on the football season just yet. Nor were the blue-clad players of Newport AFC, who triumped 7-1 in tonight’s final of the Gray Trophy (aided considerably by the indiscipline of their opponents who obligingly reduced themselves to 9 men with quite a bit of the game still to go). Out they trot for the start of the game, not yet knowing how straightforward this will prove to be in the end.

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Apr 08 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape, Sport

The Anchor Ground and Jubilee Tower

Sunday 7th April 2024, 2.45pm (day 4,609)

Darwen landscape, 7/4/24

Both these facilities are to be found in Darwen, Lancashire, where concluded my last weekend in the UK until late May. By the time I get back it might have stopped raining — this shot was grabbed in one of the afternoon’s few dry spells. At least, if it does rain on my travels to come, it’ll be warmer rain.

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Apr 02 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Easter Monday, day out

Monday 1st April 2024, 3.10pm (day 4,603)

Rain at Brighouse, 1/4/24

This family (I suspect, a boy and his grandparents) were not the only ones wondering what they were doing outside this afternoon — particularly watching Brighouse Town, who slumped to a 1-5 home defeat. For the last 60% of April 2024 I will be somewhere with better (and certainly drier) weather than here — but I’m not there yet.

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Mar 30 2024
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Daily Post, Sport

Turnstiles 12 and 13

Friday 29th March 2024, 2.55pm (day 4,600)

Turnstiles, Accrington, 29/3/24

Good Friday, hence a day off work, and plenty of football around so it seemed the logical thing to do, particularly as Clare was paying — the destination being Accrington Stanley v Morecambe in League Two. Which, insofar as anything does in Accrington, attracted quite a crowd.

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