Night Out
John Atkinson dwells on a few hellish memories…
I would like to follow on from Mark Williams' piece in RP26 about games getting called off. Well, we were all at Luton, or some point further south, when the West Ham FA Cup game was pulled a few seasons ago (day off work wasted, late night for nothing, etc etc) but how many readers recall this…
A few seasons ago Haydons of Chirk were our chosen carrier (Coach No. 15) for the FA Cup game away to Wimbledon. Me and my fellow Paddock-dwellers, including my young son James, boarded the coach and sat back for a pleasant drive down to London, a good day out and hopefully a victory! But what happened that day was totally unexpected and every word true. There must be other survivors of Coach 15 to back me up!
We left the Racecourse, stopped for a coffee on the way and discussed the eccentricities of the old chap who had brought the remains of his Christmas turkey with him. Not just a few slices and some bread, but the whole carcass on a platter which he sliced from with a 6" carving knife while balancing it on his lap! (A touch of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest?) Anyway we got as far as London and before long we were obviously lost. The driver asked for directions several times and it was not until we had passed the Twickenham rugby ground TWICE that we began to worry. Time was ticking on and we all knew Twickenham was nowhere near Selhurst Park!
So, we questioned the driver and he said he had never been to Wimbledon before! 'But Wimbledon share their ground with Palace at Selhurst Park!' we all screamed in unison. Now we knew for sure that we would be lucky if we made the kick-off. I jumped off the coach and asked a bloke getting into his car for directions. This bloke was a Chelsea fan who had left Stamford Bridge early as his side was getting stuffed about 5-0 by Manchester United and he could not take any more. Anyway, he got us on the way and wished us luck. We arrived at Selhurst Park during the half-time interval. The coach was allowed to park up right outside the gates, the gates opened and we were let in without having to show our tickets. An hour later, a disputed/disallowed winning goal from the Dons and a decent draw, and we were back on the coach and off home.
As we had approached London on the way down, we gathered that something was wrong with the coach...and it was! On the outskirts of London going back the fan belt broke! We sat on the hard shoulder awaiting a replacement part/coach, with tempers rising. The police kept us company and we discussed what claims we would make and the 'turkey man' went on walkabout to the annoyance of everyone.
We got home eventually at some ungodly hour and the end result was a letter of apology from Allan Thomas, an invite into his office to have our say, and a refund of the coach money!