Some weekends are better than others. I think that any weekend where I can fit in a gig, a walk and a sporting event has to be one of the better ones. Sort of a triple crown, I suppose. This was one of those weekends with a gig in Sheffield, another stretch of the Yorkshire Wolds Way and then a cup final over near Manchester, albeit not in that order.
The gig was at Mary Street Live in Sheffield. It’s a small venue that holds around fifty people and seems more like a storeroom than a concert venue. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it might be used for stabling horses when there isn’t a music event on. It had a can bar, which was very welcome, but no air-con, which was less so. Other than Jen and I, the crowd seemed to be mostly friends and family of the bands. Everyone nipped outside to cool down at any lull in proceedings.
We were there to see the headliners, David Cronenberg’s Wife, who were very good and somehow had managed to get a grand piano on stage. The support acts were ok too, despite it being the first ever show for one of them.
The walk was the following day, six miles along the Yorkshire Wolds Way between North Newbald and Arass, then back again to fill in a gap between sections we had already done. There wasn’t much in the way of wildlife other than a decomposing rat and a grounded bird too young to fly.
We’d recently had a young crow in the back garden that couldn’t get more than two feet off the ground. I put a few worms out for it, but its parents were watching and I think it took its food from them instead. Two days later it was gone, either by flying well enough to clear the wall or by being carried away by a fox or hawk. There were no feathers left behind, so hopefully it was under its own steam.
And the other part of the triple crown? That was the Gilgryst Cup Final featuring Manchester Corinthians and Tintwhistle United of the eleventh tier Manchester League Premier Division. It was played at Ewan Fields which is currently the home ground of Hyde United and in the past one hundred and forty years since it opened has hosted the reserve teams on both Man City and United, as well as the American Football team, Manchester Falcons.
It was five quid admission and with few other football options available at this time of year I wasn’t surprised to see that the almost three hundred and fifty strong crowd included a fair representation from the groundhopping community. I started off in the main stand. Others were drinking in the standing terraced area to my right, whilst many stood behind the dugouts on the far side.
Corinthians were the stronger team in the first half and they opened the scoring as we approached the quarter of the hour mark. A ball was threaded through into the box and the striker controlled it well before cutting it back across the keeper into the far corner.
At half-time I queued for some food. Hot dogs were popular, but I went for a cheeseburger. I’ve been asked to give a little more detail about the matchday food so I can reveal that it was ok. It was initially handed over without onions, but when I pointed this out, they added them. Other than that, I remember little about it, so the best I can say is that it was unremarkable and edible. They should put that on their posters.
Corinthians continued to dominate in the second half. I switched to the opposite side of the stadium where I was able to listen to their manager constantly berating his players about their need to “switch on”. Maybe it worked as twenty minutes into the second half they switched on long enough to add a second with an unchallenged header from a cross swung in from deep on the right.
As we entered added time and with the game effectively over, the Tintwhistle keeper flattened an attacker chasing a through ball. After some consultation with the lino, the ref sent him off, maybe it was DOGSO, perhaps serious foul play. Either way, both the challenge and the subsequent decision all seemed a bit unnecessary to me at that stage.
The keeper didn’t join the queue for a medal at the end. I didn’t realise that punishing red carded miscreants by denying them a role in the post-match ceremony was still a thing. Perhaps it isn’t and he just didn’t care with it being a loser’s medal anyway. Regardless, it was a decent final and a good weekend.
Trail of the Lion King 