Pipit

In between bouts of marking I did a small circuit of the moor. I checked out a few of the Green Hairstreak spots, but it was mainly too dull, windy and cool to hope for much; certainly no repeat of last year's very early sighting. This Meadow Pipit was peeping away at Sconce.

Later, I'd planned to head out to Steeton AFC for their match against Salts, but my front door key snapped off in the lock as I was exiting, so I had to get that sorted.  Luckily I stumbled across a local locksmith who came out straight away and fitted a new lock, which it needed. By this time it was too late for the Silsden game (ko 18:00 due to lack of floodlights) so instead I headed across the valley to Eccleshill United who were letting in Bradford City season ticket holders for free.

With just a couple of games of the regular season left, Eccleshill are vying with Grimsby Borough and Yorkshire Amateur for the second of  two automatic promotion spots from the Northern Counties East League Division One, with Knaresborough Town already having secured top spot. They certainly seemed motivated, racing to a 5-0 lead at half-time and finishing 9-0 winners over FC Bolsover. YouTube highlights of the match are available here. They have secured a play-off spot, but need Grimsby to drop a couple of points to set up a final match decider for the automatic place, against Yorkshire Amateur next Monday.

It seems I missed a thriller at Silsden though, that one finished 6-6 after Silsden had led 5-1 at half-time.