Wasted Journeys

In winter 1978 I was at Newcaste Poly in the final year of my Chemistry degree and one night we went to Middlesborough for a talk by some top Chemist. The journey was a nightmare, the minibus drove through a blizzard. When we got there, we found that the professor had got stuck in the snow so the lecture was cancelled. Just down the road from Middlesborough Poly was a working men's club so we went in there for a drink. We were told to get a drink and sit quietly because there was an exhibition match with the UK amateur billiards champion, Bob Close. It was brilliant to watch and to this day when me and my youngest go to the snooker club we always play billiards, it's a great game....


https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7123647.close-gentleman-cue-game-dies-65/

Edit; he made several breaks of over 100, some going when the normal scoring shot is 2 or 3 points...

 

Up to Edinburgh for a friendly against Hibs. Called off 2 hrs afore kick off. Made most of the weekend though. Hibs fans invited us to their social club made us most welcome.

 

I think @Bossman has recently bought one.

 

I'd never heard of it, I'll be honest, but now I want to find one!

The lads who own Retrodome in town have a couple of prototype simulators, which they think are the only ones ever made. They battle against each other. When you Google them, the only result that comes up is a couple of photos from the promo materials for them, but I can't for the life of me remember what they're called. Fixing them up and finding space for them has been a challenge though by the sounds.

 

I have a memory of going down to Wimbledon in the 4th Division promotion season only for the game to be called off by the time we got there due to heavy snow. Then the bus breaking down on the way back and the driver with the floor of the bus pulled up poking something with a long stick.
The two incidents may have been on separate trips. To be honest the diabasterous **** ups and disasters that haunted many trips with the Supporters Club do tend to morph into one unholy, nightmare.

 

I'm sure there will be some on here who made the aborted journey to Newport County one Friday evening, I think it was, many years ago.
Two coaches turned round in the Newport carpark having seen the team bus exiting.
The game was called off due to rain.
However two coach loads of Barnsley fans enjoyed a great night at the pubs in Chepstow !!!

 

Bad snow about 10 years ago. Left home at 5 so I had time to park at Leeds station for the 7am London train. Awful drive, but made it. Walked from kings cross to Hampstead due to taxi struggles and underground closures, got to site to learn customer hadn't made it in cos of weather. He lived at Cricklewood.

Was a tad upset.

 

In 1982 I was working at a small company in Dodworth. One of our maintenance engineers was sent to Italy to do a job. Our Italian distributor was due to meet him at Milan Airport. He'd never been abroad before.

I took him to Manchester for his flight, and during the journey it was apparent that he was very nervous about it. I dropped him off and set off home. When I got back to the office, bedlam had broken out. Apparently when he arrived the distributor wasn't there, so the lad bought a ticket and got on the next flight back to Manchester.

My boss went crackers, and I set off back to Manchester to pick him up again. The distributor had just been stuck in traffic and was just 15 minutes late.

The lad "left" the next day after a short conversation with the boss.

 

That would have really annoyed me!

 

I eventually saw the funny side. Hence me being able to post about my unfortunate scenario.

Wish I'd took up on the proposition though lol

 

I've been watching the weather ever since, ready to set off if it brightened up. Fortunately it never did. Always next year....

My wife is arriving tomorrow, so any similar escapades will be banned from now on. What a stroke of luck.

 

That'll.he lovely

 

this is about a journey, a tad o/t and a tad maudlin.....apologies....

Not lived in Barnsley very long and was 'between cars' - a very close friend seriously ill in a North Wales hospital.
Phoned each evening - this particular evening had a feeling that I should phone the hospital again - did that at app 10.00 and was told friend's condition deteriorating - probably wouldn't last the night - 10.00 p m walked to M1 - hitched - got a lift immediately - driver went out of his way took me to the Station - the delayed Manchester train about to depart (last of the evening.) - arrived Manchester - stepped outside Piccadilly Station and an 'all-nighter' bus to Altrincham about to set off - got bus to Altrincham - on main Chester Road - stuck thumb out - first car stopped - guy going to Holyhead - took me out of his way to Rhyl Hospital - amazingly there by 2.00 app - sat with friend who sadly died shortly afterwards.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R360#/media/File:Sega_R-360_machine.png

 

Hibs pre season was a bit of a disaster

3 of us (me, my mate and his heavily pregnant other half - who drove) went up from Leicester on the Friday night. Arrived in Glasgow at our mates flat, who it turned out, was out and wasn't answering his phone. We were knackered, considering a hotel etc when eventually he turned up and we went it. Ended up sleeping on a tiny little leather sofa, and woke up to the knowledge someone had blocked the loo...

Went in to Edinburgh the next morning, looking forward to a cracking day out. Started with a brekkie and ended up going in a fair few pubs etc with the last being close to the ground. Forget the name now but was full of Hibs fans and a few other Barnsley fans from memory. Got a phone call from my Dad telling me the game had been called off - I thought he was taking the piss. Course, he wasn't

We did manage to get to the ground and the stewards let me in to take a couple of photos etc

So nothing else to it but to spend the day around town. Eventually, the group decided we wanted something to eat, bar one, so we went to grab some food. I think soon ish after that point we'd decided we'd had enough and would head back to our mates flat for a few more beers etc

Got to the station to find all trains had been cancelled due to the weather! No taxis as they'd all been booked by others like us stranded at the station. After a few hours, and by this point late evening, eventually the trains had started running again and we headed back to Glasgow

The 3 of us then decided that due to the time, we'd end up heading back down south that night

So we started the drive down. At some point, we'd all agreed we were too tired and needed to stop, so we did. Unfortunately woke up to a completely flay battery, middle of the night, in a practically deserted service station. With no jump leads. And a breakdown policy that only covered the few miles around Leicester. Perfect!

We were able to buy some, from the services fortunately, however we still had the major problem of having no one around to jump-start us. Eventually, at god knows what time, we were able to find someone who would help, they got us back up and running and we ended going back to Huddersfield to stay at my mates mums house

 

About 50 years ago I lived in Pogmoor as a teenager. Our next door neighbour was beside himself with excitement, as he'd ordered his first ever new car, due to be picked up a week later. He promised my younger brother and me a spin in it.

On the day he knocked and told us to get ready, he was about to set off on the 10 minute walk to Polar Motors on Dodworth Road to pick it up. His eyes were lit up and his face was beaming. Off he went, and we sat transfixed by the window watching for his return.

3 hours later, not a sign. We just assumed it was taking him a long time to figure out how to operate the indicators. Then, eventually, we saw him approaching.......on foot. His beaming expression had been replaced with an abject glumness, reminiscent of the look on fans' faces leaving Grove Street at 5pm.

It really was a wasted journey. He'd written it off pulling out of Polar into the path of a bus.

 

We used to call that an "RTFM Failure" in our fault logs