Monthly Archives: December 2016
Woking v Aldershot

26/12/2016. Aldershot Town v Woking FC. Scott RENDELL celebrates scoring Aldershot’s first goal.
Having covered the Aldershot v Woking game on boxing day, it looks very much like I shall be covering the reverse fixture on New Years Day, also looks as though my brief is Aldershot attack, leaving the Woking attack to their resident photographer.
Well that worked…

Canon WFT-E6
The first “real” test of the WFT-E6 was a success. At the last game that I covered that the TV was at caused problems for the Eye-Fi Mobi pro cards that I use, meaning that I was unable to wire images on the fly during the game, so I upgraded to the Canon WiFi. Well the Aldershot v Woking game on boxing day was televised, with some 3500 fans & the Wi-Fi worked flawlessly. It was a little slower than it would usually be, which I put down to the volume of wi-fi traffic. Each photo took between 4 & 10 seconds to arrive on the iPad, compared to the usual 1-2 seconds.
2016 Killed my monopod
Actually that is a lie, it didn’t kill it and in all likelihood the foot wore out sometime before I noticed it, I have removed soil from about the last 7 inches of the last section of the monopod. New foot ordered (actually 3 as they only do them in threes). I can’t complain as I purchased the monopod in 2001, so based on the age of the last foot, I should now have enough feet to last until 2064.
So for the next couple of football matches I shall go back to my even older Manfrotto 479 Aluminium Monopod. Which is a shame as when the weather is cold, as it is likely to be over the next few weeks, the Carbone 3449 was much less cold on the hands.
UPDATE. New foot arrived this morning many thanks to manfrottospares.com.
Windlesham Pram Race

26/12/2016. Windlesham Pram Race. Santa & his Helpers
Prior to the Aldershot v Woking game yesterday there was a little job to do of photographing the Windlesham Boxing Day Pram Race. One of the traditional silly things that villages get up to, including things like duck races & paper boat races.
Essentially hundreds of people turn up in various states of intoxication & aim to get even more so, by pushing prams (or at least wheeled contraptions) around a number of pubs, whilst raising money for good causes.
Hard To Believe
That this was over 10 years ago…
Aldershot v Woking
Local boxing day derby. Aldershot trounced Woking 4-0 at the Ebb Stadium, with a hat-trick from former Woking favourite Scott Rendell.
2016 Not a review

15/07/2016. Farnborough International Airshow. Tim Peake speaks to the crowd.
This is not a review, just some of my pictures from the last 12 months. Unfortunately not all stories are happy or have happy endings.
Happy F&*king Xmas
To everyone out there in t’internet land.
RIP Rick Parfit

07/06/2001. Francis Rossi and Rick Parfit take a break from rehearsals prior to a major world tour (Pic Paul Burgman)
I photographed Rick & Francis back in 2001 as they rehearsed for a world tour at a hotel in Epsom, two very welcoming rock stars. They greeted me with “Oh Hello, the Smudger has arrived” quickly knocked out a few frames for a magazine that I was commisioned by and then spent the next two hours listening to them run through their play list, man it was loud, they even apologised for not having a spare set of earpieces for me. My only claim to fame is having a personal concert performed by Status Quo. Fantastic memories also of their stories that they told during the breaks in performance, that will stick with me forever. RIP Rick & condolences to his family & Francis.
Always a little nerve-racking
Doing firmware upgrades, specially this time of the year when we frequently get brown outs, probably should really do it off a CF card rather than the desktop machine. Anyhoo, got there in the end…..
Chelsea v Swansea
Last nights football was Chelsea v Swansea, Chelsea (as seems usual from the games I have seen) huffed & puffed, without creating any real threat to Swansea’s goal. They scored one & conceded two.
Photographers Christmas Dinner
Important things first, company was good, beer was cold, curry was hot.
What do you…
get a brother who wants nothing & needs nothing, but loves Marmite?
Miserable Weather, Miserable Result
99 problems, this bitch is one
Whilst covering a football match at the EBB stadium which was about half full, the weakness of eye-fi cards became apparent, when there are a lot of wi-fi devices about the cards cannot cope, so another tool to the armoury has been added, F*&king expensive for just a point to point file transfer tool, although it does offer other things too. Hopefully will be here in time for next game, just not sure that I will have enough time to configure, test, reconfigure & test again.
The problem only happened inside the stadium, the moment that I left pitch-side everything worked as it should, however that didn’t help in moving files every few minutes which was the object of the exercise.
Chelsea v Dinamo Zagreb

But I want to swap shirts NOW!!
Tonights football action was from the Aldershot Stadium, featuring Chelsea v Dinamo Zagreb, which unfortunately (if you are a Blues Fan)Chelsea lost. To be honest Chelsea produced very little in terms of attempts on target.
@guildfordcity Surrey Senior Cup Action

14/12/2016. Guildford City v Horley Town. Surrey Senior Cup. City celebrate victory with Luke Badiali after his goalkeeping heroics
City went 2-0 down, but their heads never dropped, they battled to get back to parity & then took the lead. Horley Town made it 3-3 and as it was a cup game, straight to penalties. ‘Keeper Luke Badiali made three super saves to hand the win to City. Horley Town have been a bit of a bogey team for City in the past, hopefully this will mark a change in fortunes against them.
Cold Winter Nights
Nothing is more miserable than being cold on an evening covering football (except possibly being cold & wet) so let’s see if this works?
Well that was hard work…
The Canon WFT-E6 arrived today, and I thought I’d better not delay in getting the thing up & running with the iPad, well it all works, but what a faff! It has been a week of new tech for me, I have trashed the old Android phone & “upgraded” to an iPhone 6 thingy, which is now happily equipped with my old phone number (yes I changed networks at the same time, don’t ask how it went F*&king Useless TeleCos).
Anyway preliminary testing has proved that everything plays nicely together, so onwards and upwards.
Aldershot v East Thurrock
First game this week, a victory in the FA Trophy 1st Round replay for Thurrock in what was a 120 minute Goal fest.
Unlucky Today
City conceded late on to lose a match that they, on balance, probably should have won. The MoM in my opinion was probably their goal keeper.
Chelsea v Man U (U21s)

9/12/2016. Chelsea U21 v Man United. Chelsea score.
Covered the Chelsea U21s v Man United U21, glad to see the mancs get beaten

9/12/2016. Chelsea U21 v Man United. Chelsea score their 3rd
City Win

6/12/2016. Farnham Town v Guildford City FC. Shawn Lyle scores after 14 seconds
City came close to throwing away a lead, but held on to win 2-3 in the hogsback derby.
Bloody Chilly this weekend

3/12/2016. Bedfont & Feltham v GCFC
First up Guildford City visited Bedfont & Feltham & threw away a two goal lead & two points. Then on Sunday a drive over to Bromley FC’s ground (which Guildford City would kill for something similar) for Godalming Town’s game v Cray Wanderers.

4/12/2016. Cray Wanderers v Godalming Town