Royal Butterfly FC 3 Whitegate FC 1

THE NAME Jolly comes from the old French word 'joli' meaning lively and gay, writes STEVE TINNISWOOD.

So with six players of that name included in the Royal Butterfly squad, this game would at least be expected to provide an abundance of sparkling merriment, if nothing else.

Well that was my first mistake. The second was the omission to pack adequate waterproof clothing, snorkel and flippers for this my first trip to the Upper Townley playing fields on a day when the English climate was determined to drown anything that remotely resembled French gaiety.

As I sit behind the goals with the wind whistling around my ears, rain streaming down my face, frantically blowing on cold and near frozen fingers, passers-by often ask me if I'm mad.

"We're all mad Mrs. That's why they get up on a Sunday morning, usually the worse for wear, put on hardly any clothing and run around in sub-zero temperatures chasing that bag of wind, and it's my job to take the photographs. You don't think sane people do that, do you?" Having stated the obvious, I can usually return to doing what I enjoy best, but on Sunday even I started to question the logic of it all.

Torrential rain, howling winds and a pitch that soon resembled a mud bath made it almost impossible to play real constructive football and, despite a brave effort from the players in the first 45 minutes, the match was virtually washed out by half time.

No, lively and gay is not how I would describe this game. Sluggish and miserable would be more appropriate.

That's not to say the Jolly's didn't try to live up to their name. In fact in the first 20 minutes led by Steve Jolly (father of Paul and Ian, uncle to Dave and Phil) the Butterfly looked the most threatening.

Paul Morgan went close with two good efforts, the second forcing a fine save from Whitegate keeper Bobby Harris when he had to react quickly to turn the ball for a corner.

Dave Trickett then won a free kick on the edge of the box which his brother Paul took and his floated kick was saved one-handed by Harris on the goal line.

A lovely move from Butterfly almost opened the scoring in the 20th minute when Steve Jolly combined well with Paul Trickett and he in turn set up Paul Morgan to fire just inches wide of Harris's far post with the keeper well beaten.

Steve Jolly determined to make some impression on the game, hit a lovely volley just over the bar from Dave Trickett's flicked header and at this stage, at the age of 42, Jolly Senior looked by far the best player on the park.

But for all their effort, Butterfly went behind in the 36th minute. Sean Bannister took his time before releasing a telling ball to Paul Crorken on the edge of the area and Crorken holding off several defenders made no mistake from eight yards.

Six minutes later Crorken turned provider when he played the ball to Ian Loftus and despite a valiant effort by keeper Harris, Loftus's shot screamed home to put Whitegate two up.

Immediately after the quickest half-time break in footballing history, Whitegate went into a 3-0 lead. I'm not sure if all the Royal Butterfly players had found their way back onto the pitch successfully, visibility was that bad and no sooner had Mr Euxton blown his whistle than Whitegate scored. Ian Loftus ran on to along through ball from Paul Crorken and unchallenged, delightfully lobbed Phil Jolly from the edge of the box.

From then on conditions went from bad to worse. With the middle of the pitch awash with mud and enthusiasm for the game diminishing rapidly, many of the players called for the game to be abandoned.

But Mr Euxton the referee was having none of it. As far as he was concerned if that silly devil sat behind the goals with his camera was prepared to see it out, so could the players.

Royal Butterfly did pull one back in the 58th minute when Dave Jolly set off on a good run down the right and finished with a super strike from 20 yards that gave Harris no chance. Then Butterfly tried in vain to salvage the game in the last 10 minutes with efforts from Ian Jolly and Sean McAuley, but solid defending from Whitegate, who now had the assistance of a strong wind on their backs, proved too difficult to break down.

When the final whistle was eventually blown, Whitegate proved to be worthy winners. The race back to the dressing room was a different matter all together. Royal Butterfly won that hands down, with me coming in a sad and soggy last.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.