Event

Some pre-season friendlies are events, and this was one.

A few months ago it was announced that former Bradford City captain Stephen Darby was being forced into retirement following a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease. Since then he has established, with friend Chris Rimmer, a foundation to raise money for and awareness of the disease. Stephen is also a product of the Liverpool FC Academy, so it was agreed to stage this match, between City and Liverpool in support of the Foundation.

Today’s image sees the scarf display that greeted the teams onto the pitch. There were a too few many half and half scarves for my liking, but that would be the Evertonian side of me speaking. Stephen and Chris had addressed the crowd beforehand (extra), and there were many choruses of Steven’s terrace song, Stephen Darby Baby, throughout.

Apart from being an important cause this was also a big family occasion as Nephew #3 was appearing at Valley Parade in a City shirt for the first time, lining up at right back in the first half team. Sister #2 came over to mine for lunch and we traveled in to the match together, meeting more family there. Given the relative standings of the two teams it understandably turned into a defence vs attack sort of game, which meant Adam got a lot of practice facing up to marauding wingers and full backs (extra) and he did well with a number of key blocks, tackles and interceptions.  Two quick goals for Liverpool in the first quarter doused the spirits a little bit, but the day wasn’t really about results. For the record it finished 1-3.

Earlier, I’d made an early morning foray along Baildon Bank in search of an exciting bug which had been sighted by a couple of other members of a local wildlife sightings fb group. Somehow it seems that a bug  which in the UK is generally only known in the Channel Islands has popped up in our patch of West Yorkshire.  I duly found some (extra)  and also saw my first Gatekeeper and Purple Hairstreak of the year while looking.

And as if that wasn’t enough for one day, I got a 2019 Sherlock Holmes 50p piece in change from the newsagent. Result.


Butterfly Journal 2019
23. 14/07/19. Purple Hairstreak. Baildon Bank.
24. 14/07/19. Gatekeeper. Baildon Bank.