New Where Is This Ground

Actually I didn't see the clue first time round but I can now; it's the giant chimney of the Blue Circle cement works where they make that very cheekily branded concrete.

I hope you aren't in the same Castleton caff that I was in on Boxing Day. The veggie breakfast was rubbish and the clientele like the Penrith Tea Rooms, in oh, what was that film called now?

Talk about the cement works. I've a memory of first visiting the Hope Valley in 1974 and being knocked out by the wonderful sight you get at Surprise View just above Hathersage. Then, a few minutes later, I saw the towering monstrosity.

Today, walking from Castleton to Bradwell, I saw the cement works up close for the first time. They're even bigger than you imagine from a distance. It makes sense of course: nearby quarries; the Manchester to Sheffield railway line no more than two miles away. The works pre-dated the national park by a good twenty years, and once in place, were able to expand in the 1960s.

I don't know how important the works were in keeping open the Sheffield-Manchester Hope Valley rail route at the expense of the newly-electrified Woodhead route further north (one of the cause célèbres of recent railway history). Funnily enough, I rode the remnants of that route to Hyde yesterday and also crossed the M67 Manchester to Sheffield motorway which never made it much beyond being the Hyde by-pass.

I know but I'm not telling

You're a lucky man, Stefano, to have seen the likes of Inter and Liverpool playing each other.

I've not a single half-and-half scarf myself but I think it's perfectly acceptable to have a small collection. And, yes, the yellow of Torquay and the sky blue of Coventry goes together perfectly. Destined never to be worn in anger but what the hell?

But I know of folk who make a habit of collecting such items at every opportunity and, while scarves make excellent draught excluders, I've seen the half-and-half variety worn at all manner of relatively obscure matches. In fact it makes me wonder if wearing a Celtic-St Pauli half-and-half - or whatever - at Staveley Miners Welfare is sort of groundhoppers' mating signal. It repels the mainstream punters whilst attracting the attention of the similarly-inclined. The same goes for the more traditional type of "single team" scarf brought home from a trip around seven Portuguese third tier grounds over a long weekend. That's really sure to lure the 'hoppers out of the shadows.

There's also a variation of the theme regarding people who have a dozen or so "favourite" clubs. A club - or even two - in every league sort of thing. Again, not quite my scene, but I'm reminded of my trip to Glossop North End this season with a friend who we can safely label a "scarfer". This is a man who, for all I know, may possess a wardrobe full of football scarves. And, on the basis that he goes once a season, he naturally has a Glossop North End scarf.

Consequently, at the game we attended, this attracted the attention of the "travelling army" of Whalley Bridge supporters who wanted all the latest chit-chat from Surrey Street, Glossop. And, because I was there too, the assumption was that I was a GNE diehard as well. I didn't even attempt to try to join in or provide an explanation of why I happened to be at that particular Derbyshire Senior Cup tie on a chilly Wednesday evening in November.

Funnily enough I was with the same character last night and he has a wonderful habit of walking into pubs and announcing "we're here for the match" - invariably an affair due to be watched by about four dozen people - to the complete bemusement of both landlord and drinkers. That's even more amusing deep in rugby league territory.

There's certainly some marvellous characters and they make me smile. But I'm occasionally less-embarrassed and less self-concious travelling on my own to games and quietly taking pictures of barbed wire, rudimentary toilets and sunsets over the corner flag.

If these pictures of what is a lovely riverside ground in Yorkshire don't cheer us all up and tempt Barton Downs back I give up:

It's yet another with cricket and football together, and, in this case, bowls as well behind the stand.

Spring is in the air. The trees are in bud, the birds are singing and your Northern correspondent is down in Torquay next week! What, apart from a shiny new manager at Plainmoor and a couple of astute loan signings, could be better than that?