It was Eclipse Day. Not the horse race, but the solar kind. Or the lunar kind, I’m no expert. I’d been listening on the radio about the need to observe it through pin holes in cardboard or facing away and viewing it over your shoulder on your phone.
It all seemed a bit alarmist really. What about those people who watch the sun go down each evening? It doesn’t seem to affect them. I watched the last eclipse in Scotland, maybe thirty years ago and I think we all just squinted at bit.
With the sky due to turn dark I thought it would be interesting to see how it impacted upon a football game. Clearly it would need to be at a ground without floodlights and so I selected an eleventh-tier Wearside League fixture at Ferryhill Athletic’s Dean Bank Recreation Ground.
It was four pounds admission, including a raffle ticket and I paid another couple of pounds for a coffee and a bag of crisps. There wasn’t any hot food, so there’s no pie review this week.
Approximately fifty fans and one whippet lined the perimeter fence and awaited the dimming of the sunlight. As ten past seven approached the light began to fade. It was probably a little darker than I’ve seen at matches of this level, but nowhere near the lack of visibility that we played in as kids ignoring our Mam’s shouts to come inside.
When the peak darkness occurred, we saw very little of the eclipse as it took place behind a cloud. We saw very little football either as the ref conveniently called for a drinks break that lasted until the gloom started lifting.
I’m not really sure what I’d expected. Birds falling silent? Dogs wimpering? Maybe locals ritually slaughtering those from out of town?
All we got was a continuation of play in light appropriate for an August evening and in an evenly contested game a second half goal was enough to clinch the points for Barney.
Tags: eclipse, no pies, ritual slaughter, Wearside League
Trail of the Lion King 
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