Spotting 2025 – Weeks 16 & 17

With the Easter weekend stuck in the middle, the last 3 matches of the regular football season and two awards night ceremonies to photograph, this was always going to be a largely train free period. But I did get to fit in some trucking, framing and also a totally new game. So this is going to be more virtual than real woven around the tale of a compelling conclusion to the Isthmian Premier League season.

I won’t write about the farming in this post as I am covering that in a separate series. On the trucking side I’ve been driving for the Cruising Missouri event to help the community reach its target. Here’s my Mack Anthem, ‘Chance’, departing a logging site in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest near Rolla…

You all know what the truck sims are about by now so I won’t dwell on it. Suffice to say that the community still has to drive 24milllion miles in game to complete the target set for us so I’ll be back in the truck again as soon as I’ve finished writing this post😅

Easter weekend meant a feast of football. The Isthmian League’s Premier Division teams were due to play 2 matches. The first set of matches were split between Good Friday, when teams at the top played, and Easter Saturday when the bottom teams played. As we were hosting one of the bottom 4 teams, Bognor Regis Town, we played on Saturday. Bognor have been in trouble for most of the season despite having two players sitting high in the league’s top scorers chart. On the day they needed to win and hope that Dulwich Hamlet would lose against Canvey Island. Sadly neither of those criteria would be met. We took the lead early on when a well executed cross into the box from Ore Bello was headed home from close range by Camilo Restrepo. Things got worse for Bognor just before half time when Wingate got a second – Cain Keller striking from just inside the area. The defensive block caused a wicked deflection and the ball ballooned up and over the stranded keeper…

…There’s an old saying about when you’re struggling the luck going against you too! Although Bognor would pull back a goal from the penalty spot the game ended 4-1 to The Blues. Meanwhile Dulwich Hamlet were drawing against Canvey – a result that would have sent both Bognor and fellow strugglers Hastings down anyway as even if both teams had won, they would only have been able to equal Dulwich’s points tally but with a worse goal difference. That Dulwich score-line would still leave Hendon with a slim chance of escape. The seconds ticked by and I can imagine the nail-biting going on at Hendon – themselves drawing 3-3 against Chatham Town. Then Dulwich were awarded a Penalty in the final seconds of Injury time which they scored to win 2-1. That was it… Curtains for all three of the surviving bottom placed sides as none of them could now overtake Hamlet. I had a degree of sadness as Bognor’s relegation means I won’t be seeing fellow photographers Lyn and Trev next season…

On the Bank Holiday Monday we travelled to Cheshunt where a very even first half saw the teams drawing 1-1. But the second half saw Cheshunt score twice as Wingate’s players put in one of those absentee performances that infuriate the Chairman. I at least had some train action to fall back on, picking up a couple of Class 710’s for haulage on my journey to & from the match. Here’s 710130 with ‘111 arriving at Theobalds Grove…

After the Bank Holiday results were in it left a fascinating situation at the top of the Isthmian Premier table…

Position	Team	Goal Difference	Points
1	Billericay Town	+39	84
2	Horsham	+38	84
3	Dartford	+31	84
4	Cray Vallley PM	+25	77
5	Dover Athletic	+33	73
6	Chichester Town	+15	73

…I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many teams separated only by goal difference at the top of the table! The coming Saturday was going to be very exciting for fans and neutrals alike. Billericay looked to be in the Pound Seats as they had arguably the easiest opponents of the top three. Meanwhile, Dover Athletic in the last of the play-off places were due to visit Chichester Town for their last game – a winner-takes-all match!

Time to dive back into the virtual world – Literally! This game has been getting very good reviews on Steam and I decided that as it was on offer I’d give it a try despite it being somewhat different to my usual diet of realistic simulation. Dave the Diver is a weird mix of platformer/open world built in a retro pixelated style. Gameplay is split into morning and afternoon dives…

…where you catch fish and carry out tasks for rewards using a variety of tools and weapons. The fish and any ingredients you may find are used to stock a sushi bar. Here’s a ‘Catch’ screenshot…

…With a mix of fish and ingredients returned to the boat at the end of a dive. The jellies are there because there was a Jelly fish Party planned in the sushi bar 😅 The third part of the gameplay cycle is the evening where you will work in the sushi bar…

…This is where you make your money. Whilst the length of the dives is dictated by how long your oxygen lasts, the evening in the sushi restaurant is of a fixed duration. You create a new menu each evening using the ingredients you have available…

…And that’s the basics of the game. The 3 cycle loop works well as it means you can dive in and play for perhaps 30mins then save and walk away unlike my hardcore sim games! It is strangely addictive and I feel I’ll be slowly working through the story based narrative while taking part in the many side-plot mini-games. Worth a look if you want a game that isn’t too time consuming and can be played casually.

Back to the football and the final Saturday of the season. If you can remember back to before Dave the Diver, the bottom of the table had been resolved but there was a lot still to be decided at the top. Chichester City vs Dover Athletic was the 5th place decider and that went to Dover with a 1-3 win at Chichester. Cray Valley PM couldn’t affect what was happening around them and were guaranteed 4th spot – They lost on the day to Folkestone Invicta. It was down to the top 3 to decide who was going to be champions and gain automatic promotion. Dartford hosted Carshalton Athletic – It didn’t go well as The Robins turned up with their shooting boots on and determined to have a say in things. It finished 4-1 to Carshalton leaving Dartford, who had spent several weeks in the top spot to finish in third.

Billericay were hosting Cheshunt who have improved as a side in the second half of the season. They shocked the hosts by scoring twice in the first half. ‘Ricay pulled one back to make it 1-2 on the stroke of half-time. Meanwhile, at Horsham, Hashtag had taken the lead but the hosts had scored twice to lead 2-1 at half-time. The second half saw Horsham pile on the pressure and score three goals to lead 5-1 – Would that be enough? Billericay also hit the ground running in the second half quickly scoring an equaliser and then taking the lead on the 56th minute. Resolute defending by Cheshunt denied them any more goals until the 6th minute of injury time when ‘Ricay finally found the net to win 4-2. They will rue the 2 goals gifted to Cheshunt in the first half – Horsham became this season’s Champions by dint of a single goal – Here’s the final table…

Position	Team	Goal Difference	Points
1	Horsham	+42	87
2	Billericay Town	+41	87
3	Dartford	+28	84
4	Cray Vallley PM	+24	77
5	Dover Athletic	+35	76
6	Chichester Town	+13	73

…I can’t remember as close a finish to an Isthmian League season 👍

We had a quiet day against Canvey Island. Although the match was well contested, neither side could find the net and it finished 0-0. Both defences had a good day and our skipper, Billy, will be pleased with that…

…A few of the youth players got a chance to play near the end too…

…With all that hair flying around, Myles will be a fave with just about every foottie photographer 🤣 Kacper came on to replace Charlie in goal and was welcomed off the pitch with thanks for maintaining Charlies clean sheet…

…And that concluded our season. I’ll leave it to Zack & Loic to wish you all well…

See you next post 😎👍