Posts Tagged ‘Krankenhaus’

Askam Utd v Crooklands Casuals, Saturday 23rd August 2025, 11am

September 5, 2025

The August Bank Holiday weekend is rapidly becoming associated, for me at least, with Sea Power’s Krankenhaus Festival. This will be the fifth one that they’ve held at Muncaster Castle and Jen and I have been to them all. The first one, back in 2019, had fewer than four hundred attendees and probably many of them were gatecrashers who had been alerted to the complete lack of security.

This year the capacity had reached fifteen hundred and that’s as high as I’d like it to go. Part of its charm is the lack of crowds and, whilst I appreciate the need for it to at least break even, it was very full inside the barn for the higher profile bands.

Despite the increased capacity, the festival was still a success. Hamish Hawk was very well received, as he had been last time he appeared. I can’t really understand how he isn’t bigger. There was a short performance from Stewart Lee, prior to him introducing The Nightingales. I wondered if he might struggle a bit as most of his humour relies on slow burning build ups and looping back to previous references. I needn’t have worried, as he nailed it.

The highlight though was Sea Power. It always is. For their Friday night performance, I started off a few feet from the stage, but it got too hot and after being clonked on the head by a surprisingly heavy wooden owl that was being dangled from a fishing rod, I moved to the colder air outside the barn and watched the rest of the set from there.

We stayed offsite, in a small place near Santon Bridge. It was ideal for a Sunday morning walk along a Forestry Commission path to Mitterdale. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife other than a few sheep and I’m not sure that they count. As you’d expect, the views were great. When the path became boggy, we called it a day and turned around, but the six-mile stroll with plenty of ascent was worth doing.

Unsurprisingly, I took in a football game. I’d originally planned to head up to Whitehaven, but their 3pm kick-off would have meant missing Hamish Hawk. For an alternative I found a game that was kicking off at 11am as part of a groundhopping weekend. It was at Askham and involved an hour-long drive down some country lanes that were barely wide enough for one car, never mind two.

It was a fiver to get in and that included a programme and a team sheet, something that a lot of groundhoppers regard as essential to their experience.

Inclusion on a groundhopper tour significantly boosted the attendance. There were close to four hundred people there, mostly blokes on their own and of a similar age to me. The club had pulled out all of the stops to provide facilities and hopefully make a few bob from the day.

There was a small stall with Askam merchandise, including shirts that were presumably last season’s match kits. Further along, someone had two full tables of pin badges. He also had replicas of the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup trophies. Selfies could be taken with the trophies at a pound a pop. An outdoor bar sold cans of beer and soft drinks but I resisted all of the spending opportunities until I reached the food stall where I spent my cash on a bacon and egg roll instead.

The Duddon Road ground doesn’t have any stands or seating, although there were a few picnic tables along one side of the pitch. There are houses along two sides of the pitch and some picturesque views of the sea behind one goal and the hills behind the touchline with the picnic tables.

It was a grass pitch and after the summer that we’ve had was mainly yellow and in need of some rain. It would have benefitted from some levelling too, with one section in particular sloping upwards towards the corner flag.

The fixture was in the twelfth-tier Division One of the West Lancashire League. According to the programme, Askam hadn’t been doing too well so far this season, but they had most of the early possession and better chances.

Crocklands took the lead against the run of play a quarter of an hour in, when a third effort was driven home after the keeper had beaten out the previous two attempts at goal.

Askam stepped up the pace in the second half but despite the pressure couldn’t force an equalizer. Most of the crowd moved on to Dalton for their second game of a three match Saturday itinerary, whilst I headed back up the road to Muncaster with sufficient time in hand for Hamish Hawk’s afternoon set.

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Workington v Hebburn Town, Monday 26th August 2024, 3pm

November 23, 2024

Krankenhaus was done for another year. It really is a wonderful festival and has grown from around three hundred attendees five years ago to twelve hundred or so this year, which is big enough for me. The very friendly vibe is probably enhanced by the number of dogs that come along. Plus, Sea Power aficionados tend to be some of the nicest people around. I don’t think I saw anyone being a dickhead the entire weekend.

The highlights were the Sea Power sets themselves and for their Sunday night performance we got a mellow rarities set, drawing heavily on Hamilton’s songs. All it would have needed for perfection would have been a rendition of Lovely Day Tomorrow.

I hope that the festival has started to turn a profit and that it helps to keep them going. I’d miss gigs like the two that we got from them this weekend.

As we were staying at Muncaster for the rest of the week, I had the opportunity to take in a match on the Bank Holiday Monday at Borough Park in Workington. It was a fixture in the seventh tier Premier Division of the Northern Premier League.

I can remember when Workington were a Football League club. It’s forty-seven years since they were replaced by Wimbledon in the penultimate season of the bottom four in Division Four having to apply for re-election. I don’t remember Bill Shankly managing them though, that was before my time. Visitors Hebburn Town are ex-Northern League and have done well to advance two steps since those days.

It was thirteen quid admission, which seems high for tier seven, but maybe that’s my age. Why can’t I still buy a car for a farthing? The turnstile was impressive in an old rickety way, as was almost all the ground. The dugouts seemed modern, which is a shame, as I’d hoped to have imagined Shankly sat in one of them. I still did, but had to put in the extra effort to imagine the dugout too.

The capacity of the ground was limited to three thousand, with seating for around five hundred in the old main stand. With time to spare before kick-off I got myself a programme and joined the queue for one of those curly sausages that always remind me of a particular style of dog turd. It came with mash and gravy and tasted better than it looked. It was announced before kick-off that Workington had signed Efe Ambrose who had turned out for Celtic in the past and who had more than fifty Nigerian caps. He wasn’t available for this game.

After watching from the seats for a while I toured the rest of Borough Park and had spells watching from behind each goal.

Hebburn had the best of the opening exchanges, blazing a shot over the bar early on and then taking a first half lead with a shot that the Workington goalie got a hand to and should probably have kept out. It looked as if that would be sufficient for Hebburn to see the game out but a break down the right ten minutes from time led to an equaliser. The move was repeated four minutes later and to the delight of all those around me, including a dog, Workington went ahead.

Hebburn understandably weren’t happy about the changed circumstances and their day deteriorated further when a fella picked up a second yellow soon afterwards. All Workington had to do after that was run down the clock and they managed it easily enough.

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Millom ARLFC v Normanton Knights, Saturday 24th August 2024, 2.30pm

November 14, 2024

As we’d now reached the weekend, Krankenhaus was well under way. It’s the fourth time that the festival has been held and Jen and I have been fortunate enough to attend them all. Harry and Isla were also there two years ago and came in with us and Soph on the Friday afternoon this time.

It’s a chilled, friendly atmosphere and I’ve little inclination these days to attend any festivals that are bigger or rowdier.

Highlight of the Friday was Sea Power’s set. But it always is. Whilst the other bands were decent, I’d be happy if the three-day festival comprised of nothing more than a single Sea Power performance each day. There’s enough going on to fill my time in Muncaster Castle and on a Saturday afternoon there’s always some football on somewhere.

I popped in pre-match on the Saturday and watched a Hector Gannet lunchtime set whilst Harry was still in bed before returning to the house to pick him up and drive south to Millom.

We were there to watch a football game in the West Lancashire league, but on arrival there was already a crowd of around four hundred watching a rugby league game on an adjacent pitch. Millom Amateur Rugby League Club contends to be the oldest rugby league club in the world. I’ve no reason to doubt their claim, particularly as my knowledge of the support is so limited that this was the first ever fixture that I’d seen live.

A little research revealed that the game was in the sixth tier of English rugby which is Division Two of the National Conference. Millom were fighting to avoid the drop to Division Three and badly needed a win against visitors Normanton Knights.

Harry plays Union for Stockton and found the six-tackle League format interesting. It means you have to concentrate more when watching as you need to know how close the attacking side is to the six-tackle limit.

I’m not sure all of the crowd were counting the tackles, as a lot were focusing on their pints and the socialising that comes with a big game on a Bank Holiday weekend. Others were watching from their houses across the road, which gave a great view of the match from their front gardens and upstairs windows.

It was all very good natured on the pitch despite the relegation fears and an even first half ended with the sides level at twelve points each. Normanton went ahead in the second half before Millom took control and ran in three tries for a 30-18 win that kept their hopes of avoiding the drop alive.

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Kendal Town v Newcastle Benfield, Saturday 17th August 2024, 3pm

September 20, 2024

I rarely go to music festivals these days but make an exception for Krankenhaus as it is run by Sea Power and, if nothing else, it means I get to see them play twice in a weekend. It’s held at Muncaster Castle in the Lake District. At least I think it’s the Lakes, although I’m never really sure where the boundaries stop and start.

We’ve camped at Krankenhaus twice before, but the rain last year lessened the enjoyment, especially for Jen, and so this year we returned to a house that we’d stayed in a couple of years ago. We took Soph’s beagle, Henry, and the highlight of the fortnight for him was when four trail hounds detoured from the fells into our garden. He had found his tribe. Unfortunately, it became less of a highlight for him when his tribe found the bone that he’d been enjoying and disappeared up the lane with it. It’s a dog’s life.

On the drive down to Muncaster, we broke the journey in Kendal. And what do you know? There was a football game going on. Who’d have thought that might happen? Jen spent a couple of hours wandering around the town whilst Henry and I took in the FA Cup Preliminary Round fixture between Kendal Town and Newcastle Benfield.

It was seven quid to get in and we settled into the back row of seats behind the goal at the clubhouse end. Henry spent most of the first half sleeping, perking up only if someone carrying a burger or a tray of chips made their way in our direction.

Both sides currently turn out in Division One of the Northern League. Newcastle Benfield have been there for the past twenty years, but it’s a new experience for Kendal Town who were moved laterally at the start of the season from the Premier Division of the Northwest Counties League. I suspect that travelling to the Northeast for most of their fixtures will soon wear a bit thin.

It will be interesting to see how Kendal get on in the Northern League. I’ve a suspicion that the standard is dropping with some many of the former Northern League clubs now making their way higher up the pyramid.

There were four stands dotted around the Parkside Road ground. In addition to the seats behind the goal where Henry and I had taken up residence, there were two stands along the side to our right and a small fourth covered area to our left. Whilst there were a few people in that stand, its main function was for storing lawnmowers.

The Mintcakes should have gone a goal to the good early on from a penalty, but it was struck a little too close to the Benfield keeper and he was able to keep it out.

There weren’t a lot of chances in the remainder of the first half, but just before the break a cross from the left was tapped in by a visiting striker to put Benfield one-up. He celebrated by shushing the home crowd and was rewarded with a volley of abuse, most of which suggested that he might like to promptly return to the Northeast.

At half-time I walked Henry across to the sloped grassy area just beyond the lawnmower storage stand and we watched the remainder of the game from there. The levels of niggle, if that’s a thing, increased and the visiting coach or manager was sent from his dugout to a spot on the rail behind the goal. It didn’t seem to reduce his ability to coach and probably gave him an advantage when Benfield had a corner.

One of the highlights of the second half was when the lino flagged for offside from a throw-in. He got some stick from those still on the Benfield bench for that decision and sheepishly lowered his flag as soon as he realised his mistake.

Kendal drew level with a quarter of an hour to go. I saw the ball crossed into the box but missed the finish as I’d glanced down to see what Henry was rolling in. Fox shit, I suspect.

I was paying better attention when the shushing striker notched his second goal of the afternoon, heading home from close range in added time to put Benfield one step closer to Wembley.

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Gosforth v Moor Row, Saturday 7th September 2019, 2pm

November 29, 2019

Ticking off this ground was a bit unexpected in that I’d no idea that there was a game taking place until I noticed the players running around as we drove past on the way to a different match. We had plenty of time though and I pulled in and parked up to take a few photos.

Jen and I were staying down the road at Muncaster for British Sea Power’s Krankenhaus festival and had spent the morning walking up on Muncaster Fell. It’s somewhere that I‘ve been to before and we had decent views both inland and out to sea. Further up the coast we could see Sellafield which was somewhere that I first worked at nearly thirty years ago.

Back in those days I stayed just outside of Gosforth and would regularly drink in all of the three pubs that are within a few feet of each other in the village. Sometimes the sessions would go on a bit longer than I’d consider wise these days and on more than one occasion I ended up going straight to work without ever making it back to my digs.

It wasn’t all drinking though, sometimes we had a kick about after work on the same field as where this game was taking place. Although we would usually then end up in the pub anyway so perhaps it was all about the drinking after all.

I learned from one of the home coaching team that this was a cup game against Moor Row, which is a few miles to the north. I’ve no idea what level the teams play at but it looked to be lower than Wearside League standard so maybe 12th or 13th tier. Anyway, I later found out that the cup was the Conway Cup and despite me hanging about for a good ten minutes I didn’t see any of the seven goals that Gosforth subsequently put past the visitors.

Still, it’s another ground, number three hundred and thirty to be precise, and it gave me a chance to reminisce about the times when concluding an evening at seven o’clock meant the next morning rather than early that same evening.

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