Cartagena (Spain)

Now here is the tale of two teams from the middle- sized city of Cartagena in Spain and their curious, convoluted histories. One, the second division stalwarts FC Cartagena, the other, their slightly digruntled regional third division cousins Cartagena FC, both of who play in the famous black and white stripes. Now pay attention, because this might get complicated.

Despite their lowly status, Cartagena FC are by far the more historic team, having formed in 1940. Shy of a short spell in the 1980s when they achieved the dizzy heights of the Segunda División, they've spent most of their days in the third level or lower - even dipping down as far as the uber-regional Preferente for a few years in the early 21st Century. But for 45 glorious years, they were the only major footballing outfit in town, until in 1995, the upstart Cartagonova Fútbol Club were formed, who soon changed their name to FC Cartagena.

If this wasn't enough of an imposition, FC Cartagena soon subsumed Cartagena FC to become their reserve team for a number of years, but they finally regained their independence in the 2009-2010 season and are now working their way back up the league system.

FCC play at the classic Spanish bowl-like Estadio Cartagonova, which can cram in just upwards of 15,000 punters, while CFC have kick the ball about in the much cosier out of town ground the Estadio Gómez Meseguer, which holds a respectable 2000. But if both teams continue their current trajectories, they could find themselves being the subject of a very unique local derby in one of the next few seasons.


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Club Atletico Estudiantes (Argentina)

Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, as they are usually known, to distinguish them from La Plata's considerably more successful bunch of students, are a third tier Agentinian team playing in the regional Primera B Metropolitana. They've spent their whole footballing life in the lower leagues, bar one golden season in 1978 when they finally made the top flight. That they finished 21st and last didn't matter, as it was their year to remember.

Formed in the August of 1898, that's a long, hard history of nothing much, you might think. But they have had a few other seasons of note. They've won the Primera B on three occasions, and the fourth level Primera División C the once. They were also winners of the national amateur league back in 1942, so there's clearly some grit behind the lack of trophies.

Notable former players include Boca Juniors' current rising star Pablo Mouche, who they found as a teenager, the much travelled Cristian Tavio, now at his 12th club in 14 years, and Napoli's nippy striker, Ezequiel Lavezzi - one of many players to have been cursed with the mantle The New Maradona in his youth. The latter was a member of Argentina's gold medal winning Olympic team, so keep an eye out for him at the next couple of World Cups.

They are also notable for having graced one of the ugliest black and white strips in footballing history. White down one half and black down the other, each half had pin stripes of the opposite colour running vertically through them. Technically I suppose it can be counted as a black and white shirt, but it's pushing the boundaries pretty dang close. Thank heavens they've gone back to the more traditional format - although you have to credit them for their creativity - however ill-judged!

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PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (Bulgaria)

As with most great East European teams who share their name, Lokomotiv were formed by railworkers at the main station in Plovdiv - Bulgaria's second city - in 1926. But they didn't immediately take on the historic name. They were initially known by the simple but effective Sportclub, and kept that appellation until as recently as 1949 - some eleven years after they joined the Bulgarian National Football League.

Despite their long history, they were known as one of Bulgaria's under-achievers, grabbing the odd second and third place and occasional minor cup here and there until they stunned the nation with the league title in 2004. They clinched in the penultimate match against Slavia Sofia in a hard-fought 3-2 win in a massively over capacity home match at their homely stadium, knocking their nation's most successful team, Levski Sofia into a grudging runners-up slot.

This period of success corresponded with the club's ownership by the multi-millionaire businessman Georgi Iliev. However, there was more to their benefactor than immediately met the eye. A talented wrestler in his youth, Iliev had to give up the sport after he was imprisoned for his involvment in a brutal gang rape. While inside he became well versed in the way of the mob, and after his release became the boss of a shady crimnal organisation called VIS. Thought to be one of Bulgaria's richest men, he was flung into the headlines after he was shot and killed at a Black Sea holiday resort after Loko's UEFA Cup match against OFK Beograd in 2005.

After his death, the club was plunged into financial difficulties, and had to break up the winning team and sell off all their most prized footballing assets to survive. This didn't stop them finishing a plucky fifth the following season, qualifying them for a short-lived InterToto Cup run.

But Loko would probably prefer to be remembered for the stuff that happened on the pitch. Indeed, they were the home of Bulgarian legend Hristo Bonev. In three stints on the playing staff between 1959 and 1984 he became his nation's biggest footballing star, and went on to score a record 47 goals for his national side in a mammoth 96 appearances. he then went on to manage Loko for a spell, before taking the national team to the 1998 World Cup in France.

Their fans, going under the deceptively cute name of The Smurfs, are considered the most fanatic in all the land, and regularly meet with their sworn rivals Botev Plovdiv in remote locations for old school hoolie dust ups. More sedately, they also have the oldest, and some say largest fan club in Bulgaria, and matchdays are noted for their lively, if not slightly unhinged, atmosphere.



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Highlanders FC (Zimbabwe)

Highlanders, based in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, may not be the country's most successful club, but they're certainly the best supported, with divisions of their fan club reaching right across the globe. They're also the owners of one of the best nicknames in world sport - Siyinqaba - which means quite simply, 'We Will Win'.

They were formed in 1926 by the English educated son of the last Ndebele King, Lobengula, who created a team called Lions FC from boys born in Makokoba - Bulawayo's oldest township. Ten years later they changed the name to Matebeleland Highlanders Football Club - a title that has since been shortened to its current snappy state. They didn't join the Rhodesia National Football league until 1968, and won the second division at their first attempt. Since then they have won the national title seven times, and a slew of regional cups.

A number of their players have gone on to grace the international stage - not least the deadly strike force that was the one-time Coventry, Birmingham City and Sheffield United star Peter Ndlovu, also Zimbabwe's top international scorer, as well as New England Revolution forward Mkhokheli Dube and the legendary wobbly-legged Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar, who started his long and often unruly career at the club.

Their history hasn't been without turmoil, though. In 1976 they got the hump with the way the RNFL was being run and broke away with a number of other clubs (including the fably named Black Horrors, Portuguese, Ramblers and, best of all, Go Beer Rovers) and started the South Zone Soccer League. This caused much hoo-ha in the nation's footballing community, and a number of their senior players left to form the own club, Olympics, who stayed true to both the RNFL and the black and white stripes. After a couple of seasons, many other teams lent their support to Highlanders' stand against what they saw as unfair accounting and blatant nepotism by the national association, and pretty soon the National Professional Soccer League was created, and the Zimbabwean FA reformed - all because of Highlanders' brave stand.

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Tauro FC (Panama)

Tauro Fútbol Club are the most successful team in Panamanian league history, with nine wins and eight runners up gongs under their belts since their relatively recent foundation in 1984. Like many other stripes around the world, they are believed to have chosen their strip because their founder, Italian industrialist Giancarlo Gronchi was a fan of some mob from his homeland called Juventus.

They play in the slightly obtuse Liga Panameña de Fútbol, where like an increasing amount of  countries in Latin America the season is split into two tournaments - the Apertura and Clausura. Both of these have two stages - a round robin league where everybody plays everybody else, followed by a knockout where the top four team have a series of play-offs to decide the winner. 

Relegation is decided by adding both sets of round- robin tables, and the winners of both halves of the season qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. And you thought our play-off systems were tricky to fathom! Prior to the creation of the main national league, Tauro played in the Liga Distritorial de Chepo, a league for clubs from the Eastern side of the country.

Interest in football comes a distant second in a country obsessed by baseball, and so Tauro's achievements in becoming the most popular club in Panama and begining to bring the game to the masses is even more remarkable.

They have a great rivalry with their fellow Panama City club Plaza Amador, their matches known locally as El Clásico. This dates back to the very first match in the LPF where Tuaro's Carlos Maldonado scored the debut goal in the competition's history. Current stars include captain Luis Moreno, a much capped Panamanian international, Colombia journeyman Joan Melo and Argentinian strike man Matias Bernal. The team are also notable for having kept the same manager, Uruguayan Miguel Mansilla, for over 20 years - a feat almost unheard of in the volatile world of Central American football.



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St Mirren (Scotland)

Formed as a gentlemen's club in Paisley way back in the Victorian mists of 1877, St Mirren can rightly be described as one of the most historic teams in Scottish football. One of only five remaining clubs from the foundation of the Scottish League in 1890, they played one of the first night games in history that same year when Morton's ground was lit by gaslamps. They are named after St Mirin of Benchor, an Irish monk and missionary who was the founder of Paisley Abbey in the sixth century, and wenty on to become the town's patron saint.

There is some dispute as to why they play in the glorious black and white. Some say that the colours come from the black and white tiles that mark the floors of all Masonic lodges, others that it refers to the black and white river carts that run through Paisley. But the most likely, and more prosaic answer is that they just liked the look of Notts County's strip.

They played at their famous and evocative Love Street ground between 1894 and 2009, the stadium seeing their record, pre-health and safety attendance of 47,438 for a game against Celtic in 1949. However, in 2005 they decided to move away from their historic base and move to a new purpose-built stadium to help clear their significant debts. The last match to be played at Love Street was a goalless draw against Motherwell on 3 January 2009 - a highly emotional afternoon before a sell out crowd.

Their next home game a couple of weeks later was at the newly built St Mirren Park, an 8,000 capacity identikit stadium, not far from their old home, opened by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond on 31 January. The first match, against Kilmarnock, finished in a 1-1 draw, the first goal scored by the Killies' Kevin Kyle.

As far as results go, they've won the Scottish Cup on three occasions, in 1926, 1959 and 1987, and have a long history in Scotland's top flight, their best finish being when they came in third behind Aberdeen and Celtic in 1980. They are also the only Scottish club to have ever won the Anglo-Scottish Cup, beating Bristol City in a two-legged final in their glory season of 1980.

They are perhaps most notable though as being the only club to have ever sacked Sir Alex Ferguson. In his second managerial position, after a brief stint at East Stirlingshire, he took the club from being a lower second division outfit with meagre crowds upon his appointment in 1974, to first division champs in 1977. And starting a theme that would stick with him to his Manchester United days, he won it with kids - the average age of his winning squad being a baby-faced 19 years. Little is known of the exact reason for his dismissal, but stories abound of his unreasonable behaviour to club staff and his being tapped up by Aberdeen for their managerial job.

But I'm sure The Buddies, as they are quaintly known, would much prefer to be remembered for their football and their long, proud history than some grumpy old bloke who briefly passed through their gates - and long may they honor their colours!

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The Well-Documented Hawk

I've photographed this sharp-shin at every opportunity. I never tire of trying to capture his beauty and urgent energy.

I've shot him in every light regime, always through windows, for he's wild and spooky.


It's hard to catch him eating. He takes his prey deep into the woods as soon as he has it subdued. A larger hawk would eat in the open, but he's closer to a jay in size than a crow, and he knows he could easily be killed by another raptor as he's concentrating on his meal.

All winter, I found his work.


I never frightened him; I let him eat, and then I'd go to see what he'd left


and who he'd had.

He liked the red ones best.

As poignant as these remnants of beauty were to me, I worried for him when he'd show up, eyes ablaze, so hungry that he flubbed every pass


for surprise is his only friend, and he's unlikely to snatch a bird by hovering over the feeders.

But still he tried, as if he could produce a meal from thin air. And sometimes it paid off, for a finch or woodpecker might be cowering on the side of the feeder. Like the Tyrannosaurus in Jurassic Park, he seems not to be able to perceive his prey until it makes the mistake of moving.

Last spring, an orange-eyed streaky male sharpshin (still in immature plumage) cried out and dove on me as I neared the whitewashed zone of his nest. I like to think it was him, aged two, already paired and raising young. It was the first time sharpshins had nested on our land; I'd watched a nest just over the border about eight years ago, but finally they were on the sanctuary! I hope they are nesting with us again, and mean to find out. Even as populations of its bigger cousin, the Cooper’s, explode in cities and suburbs, the sharp-shinned declines.

Perhaps the woods where I hope they’re nesting will be silent, and I’ll have to wait until next winter to see my ruby-eyed friend again.

I will certainly know him. I have watched him grow in beauty and skill, taken so many photographs of his progress that even I am amazed at the gallery. I don’t begrudge him his living. He is a vital working part of this wildly skewed ecosystem, taking his pay in cardinals.

And leaving us all with an eye to the sky.