Tickety Split Musical Chairs

Walsall 1 v Sheffield United 1

Saturday 21 November 2015

Twitter @ball_sup

Old man complains about the trains

Is it just me? It’s getting worse. Birmingham is a big city. Draws people in from miles around. Throw in the German Market. Throw in lots of younger people wearing fancy dress. Throw in Charlton at St Andrews. Throw in Arsenal at West Brom. Man, that was busy. I used to go to a lot of games on the train. Travelling with a few from Sheffield. Meeting up with old mates from different points of the compass. I go much less now. More likely to be on The Sportsman Bus. Non-Sheffield friends go even less than me. So, a full on Train Mob day is a rarity.

Of course, I still enjoy the day. The beer. The football. Meeting mates. But, the experience on the trains is worse. Is it just me? I don’t actually blame the operating companies. Their model is simple. Running trains costs money. More carriages costs money. The money shot is to run as few trains with as few carriages as possible. Pack ‘em in. Charge ‘em. Like more-and-more things, it’s not a Public Service anymore. As a democracy, we’ve decided we don’t want that.

The tickets are still a caper as well. We’ve done the Tickety-Split Musical Chairs Hokey Cokey. When travelling to (say) Walsall away, it is far cheaper to buy Sheffield to Derby Day Return & Derby to Bescot Day Return. I’ve got on the train with 8 bits of paper - 4 tickets, 4 reservations. But, of course, you end up in one seat from Sheffield to Derby & another from Derby to Birmingham. In a twist of fate, I had F10 to Derby & my mate had F10 from Derby.

At Derby, it’s like those photos of Refugee Trains in The Balkans. A swirling mass of humanity moving from one seat to another. The Hectors sometimes tell you “you’re not supposed to use Day Return tickets like that”. If possible, I make a point of getting to an open door at Derby & putting just one foot on the platform. You know, just to meet the Terms & Conditions. Privatise NOW.

Beer brand loyalty

Anyone with me? We’re getting to the stage when you see a beer from a particular brewery, you just know it’ll be great & you’ve got to try it. Siren, Atom, Hopcraft - ever had a duff ‘un?  So, as we all knew where it was, we did The Wellington in Birmingham. Still a great hit. 14 on cask. Oooohhhh Siren. It was a Siren/Elusive Brewing collab. Dinner For Nine on cask at 4.1%. Billed as Hoppy Vienna Pale Ale. Superb.

The other beer was Oakham, Bona Nox on cask at a whopping 8%. I’m not sure what they were trying to do there. Nothing wrong with it. But, it just seemed like a pleasant but not complex blonde beer with high abv.

Some football

Well, Walsall will be annoyed not to have won that. They dominated the first half. George Long is pony at coming for crosses. Even at corners he’s rooted for balls in the six yard. But, he is a Shot Stopper. And he’s earned his Draw Bonus there. Maybe a handful of essentially point blank saves. And Walsall have hit the woodwork twice (my count). But, I suppose in our plunge to mediocrity, that is what is down for us. Ride your luck. Make some luck of your own. Get something where you shouldn’t have. It is not how we want the season to map out. But, that’s where SatNav is sending us.

United were better in the second half. So, that is a good thing.

243/487