Thank You Rain God

So, last night we had a game - don't get excited, we lost. But I got some good pics despite having a bit of a panic before kick off that the rain wasn't going to stop. You see, all day - pretty much all week - the weather here has been nice again (this is our 3rd "nice" phase, thrown inbetween "bad phases" of highs in the 50s). And when I checked the forecast, there was no rain until Sunday. So I left my rain cover for my camera at home, thinking it wasn't going to rain and the lighter I can make my bag, the better.

Well, 2 hours before kick off and it literally starts POURING down. This is unusual for England, normally our rain is just a depressingly slow drizzle. And if that were the case, I could get away with covering my camera with something else besides my rain cover. But a down pour? I can't shoot in that without something designed for it. And by this point, I can't go home and get the cover because the pre-game sponsor shots were already in flow. So for the next hour and a half, the rain would let up but then pour down again and I was anxiously looking out the window hoping it would stop.

Amazingly, because my luck is usually not this good, about a half hour before kick off, the rain stopped and the skies cleared up. PHEW! So here are the photos I got thanks to the rain god who decided to favor me that day (click for larger versions):