Read or ignore - but it might be the last one for a while - and if you persevere, you might just get to some 'serious' point to this thread. It appears that my 'Camel' trips have evolved from football to issues relating to Hi Viz. Yesterday we had the good, bad and stupid varieties. Our trip up the A1 wasn't without its' problems. There were a couple of accidents - which, at times, slowed things down - to a standstill. The first chap I saw in a Hi Viz was a guy picking litter from the verge of the carriageway. All very commendable - BUT- He completely ignored a couple of shredded tyres that 'littered' the nearside lane - which were causing vehicles to 'swerve' around. I probably can't blame him for not wanting to risk his health - but there was a 'whole' wheel in another stretch of road - in the outside lane ! - Are people mad ? Who thought it was a good idea to just leave it in the 'fast' lane ? - of course it's NOT going to cause an accident ! A bit later we slowly approached the scene of the second accident on the A1. Traffic was at a standstill. 4 (FOUR) ambulances and two police cars passed by in the 'hard shoulder' - with their 'blues & twos' and going 'quite' quickly. Do you think THAT prevented a couple of morons from entering the hard shoulder to circumnavigate the queue. I think the drivers shared the same name - 'Richard Cranus' ( let me know if your Latin is not good ! ). ........Mind you when we got to the scene, it was an obvious case of overkill with the resources used. We stopped off at Grantham services. The 'facilities' are not the 'largest' - and there was a queue for the cubicles in the 'Gents'. The queue was 'obvious' - but that didn't stop a chap in a Hi Viz (and mop & bucket ), from asking the queue to " Excuse me, can I get through ? I need to clean the toilet cubicles." He then realised that the cubicles were occupied and was the reason for the queue. He said "Oh." and turned to walk off. And now for the 'serious' bit............ The road to the 'away' end at Barnsley leads to a community hall. There is an 'entrance' into a car park immediately before the hall. Last year, our coaches were directed through this 'entrance' and into the car park. This year, it appears that the Hi Vizzers have adopted a different, one-way system, via a detour around 4 other roads - BEFORE reaching the aforementioned 'end of road.' This is not a totally bad idea - but it lacked a lot of execution - and caused mayhem. ( what else can you expect when somebody dons a reflective coat ? ) The idea lacked foresight and only had a little contribution from the 'Yellow men.' One thing they missed was the fact that ALL traffic would be LEAVING at the same time and that they would be directed TOWARDS the area where pedestrians ( fans ) would be walking out of the ground. ( we all know what a disorganised rabble that entails ). It would have made more sense to have the 'one-way' system directed away from the ground ( the car park has two 'entrances' - about 400 metres apart - to provide safer egress. ). And it would have made even more sense if.............. If they DON'T think my suggestion is a good idea - then WHY, OH WHY didn't the stewards place signs at the 'previous' sideroad junction ( about 50 yards further back along the road ) - to advise drivers of the 'detour' ????? This would have been really simple to implement and would have prevented the nonsense that ensued. With the absence of a diversion notice - ALL traffic approached the 'entrance' to the car park - only to be turned around. THIS included our coach. The most painless manoeuvre would have been to allow the coach to enter the car park ( which was largely empty at the time ) - we would have not caused ANY inconvenience to anyone / motorists / hot air balloonists etc.............NO - YORKSHIRE'S FINEST IDIOTS decided that the coach 'MUST OBEY Mr.JOBSWORTH' - We were compelled to exercise a dangerous reverse in a narrow road ( no physical space in which to conduct a 'turn' in the road ). We needed to reverse to beyond the previous road junction, to continue our journey into the 'diversion route.' Of course we were popular with the traffic behind us - I think they showed their appreciation with their car horns ! During this 'fiasco' a motorist, came out of the car park (against the flow) and 'slipped' past the stewards. The driver obviously couldn't see our 'small' coach - whilst it slowly swung around a very tight opening into the side road ( requiring our driver to 'swing out' towards the offside to have room to complete the turn ) -This seemed to panic the driver of the car - who stopped - then reversed - WITHOUT looking to see if anything was behind - luckily it was only a 'No Waiting Cone' that got killed and not a pedestrian - Although the driver nearly addressed this by then FULLY mounting the path directly outside the turnstiles and driving along the FOOTpath. Nobody got hurt - No thanks to the BYSTANDERS in 'day glo' tunics. ( mind you. I don't know if they have any First Aid skills - just in case !). The end of the 'detour' revealed another idiot in a Hi Viz -- stopping the coach halfway in the entrance - to invite us to "Park in here, where you like - but down the bottom would be best." THAT was nearly helpful - but what WASN'T was the fact that this idiot DIDN'T step out of our way. He remained on the roadway of the entrance - causing our driver to despair - and to mount the narrow footpath to get around the chap. I don't want you to think that I consider Barnsley's Hi Viz brigade any worse than 'normal' - but I was left wondering if their previous jobs were as employees of the 'long-since' defunct Barnsley brewery less than a mile down the road -- obviously they are incapable of organising an event for the 'promotion of urine' ................And talking of jobs --- I bumped into cricket umpiring legend - Dickie Bird. I wanted to see if he had any of the famous Yorkshire sense of humour about which I have heard. I told him that he's lucky to have had his career - because with all the technology that is in cricket, he'd be 'out of a job'. He agreed with me that the modern umpire is useless - failing to see all the 'no-balls' that exist without the aid of a tv screen. I wonder what he thinks of modern football officials...... Still when these 'retire' they can always stay in the game - by becoming stewards - it's not as if they need to be of any use.
I see nothing changes in the world of football involving hi viz, thanks for the update alwaysright in what seems, no correction, was, another diabolical affair. Matter of point re the law and the coaches reversing which i have noted a few times in recent troubles. If it was a 40ft lorry, health and safety would consider it unadvisable at all costs to avoid a reversing manoeuvre on a main road. In fact health and safety could deem it refused delivery under such circumstances until alternative are sought. So how come a coach load of passengers is allowed to reverse? Now i know the average lay person might think, well all vehicles have a reverse, so where's the problem, however, under the circumstances described, the coach company may possibly invalidating their insurance or leaving itself and driver open to public liability. Laugh and ignore some may do, but if that had not been a traffic cone, then this morning someone could have been looking at a serious liability claim. Yes, the car driver would have been to blame but the actions of the coach driver may also have well been investigated if a serious injury had occurred. Basically the hi viz brigade i would assume have no training as banks people or whatever they are called, therefore technically I would assume they have no jurisdiction in preventing a coach the safest passage. Might be something worth raising with the clubs, or even Priestfield to get type to word and put in a complaint. I do hope the coach never reversed out on to a main road, because that is a big no in heavy goods vehicles, and I can't see it being much different for coaches. It really is about time some one kicked these hi viz's in to touch, there are too many incidents happening far too often of there own making. Please read the current legal pursuit against four police forces on the Cody's Fault thread, hopefully that will set a landmark precedence if successful.
brb You raise a point I made yesterday - The safest route into the car park would have been to continue to 'merely turn' into it --- there was ABSOLUTELY nothing that was going to be inconvenienced - but the stewards were stubborn. I felt sorry for our poor driver - he obviously didn't want to cause a fuss - but - he should have pointed out the 'bleeding obvious' to the stewards. Regarding the law - the stewards ONLY jurisdiction was 'authority' to prevent a 'civil trespass' into the car park if our driver had tried to ignore their 'suggestion' ( not instruction ) to reverse back to the previous junction. The car driver did not cover herself with any glory with the way that she tried to cope with the situation. The cone that got completely 'run over' could have been a pedestrian - and we'd have a death on our hands - and I do mean OUR hands - because the manouvre of our coach was definitely a factor in this incident - and Kingsferry would definitely be facing a lawsuit - with OUR driver facing charges of causing death by dangerous driving - EVEN if our coach was not the vehicle to 'physically' cause the injuries sustained. You have previously advocated that, in our case, Kingsferry need to contact the away clubs to prevent nonsense on matchday. I just hope that I may be able to continue to bring you tales of Hi Viz woes without having to add an R.I.P.
Totally agree and i think this is something Kingsferry seriously need to look at. Someone has got to tell these hi vizs where to get off, before it is their driver that ends up in court. They ignore it at their own risk. We've made vocal of this enough, surely the authorities that be at every match must realize the dangers involved. The rules cannot just apply to football supporters, common sense judgement also has to apply to those responsible for people control. The only lesson ever learned from Hillsborough was installing plastic in football grounds, the actions of the people responsible for crowd management still mystify us in the 21st Century! But what do we know has mere supporters. I hasten to add this is NOT a criticism of Kingsferry or its drivers, who are trained to high standards, this is merely the problems their drivers encounter from poor sinage and aggrevated by hi viz jobsworths on reaching destination.
I mentioned the other week that there was a little disruption at the turnstile and Always had asked me to elaborate, well this seems like the perfect thread. My story is all about a misunderstanding. Apart from one individual at MK, I don't have a problem with stewards and find most of them helpful and friendly, so much so in fact that one steward at Priestfield, who I've known for years, could almost be described as a friend. Every home game he searches my bag and blags himself a sweet from the stash he knows I carry, on this occasion we were going through the normal banter and I've jokingly told him if he touches my bag he'd lose his fingers. The problem is for anyone over hearing this it could be taken wrongly, if the person over hearing happens to be a member of the steward flying squad it can become a issue very quickly as he radio's for back up, luckily once my friendly steward explained the tension dropped quickly and everyone had a good laugh.
grumpygit I love and respect your compassion for the stewards. I have no doubt that probably all of them are very nice people, and actually are brilliant at doing what has been asked of them by their employers - and whilst the stewards may not be making any mistakes according to their 'jobsheet', that doesn't mean the job is being done correctly ! So...... Perhaps I am wrong in placing too much blame on individual stewards ! I may be looking at the problem whilst 'wearing blinkers '- but, of course I shall go on to defend my position... The real problem is the 'brief' given to stewards. I expect that they are religiously adhering to their rules - but - unfortunately it appears that the rules do not allow for common sense or adaptation to suit 'local' conditions. The [Barnsley] example that I mention, seems to occur all too often - Wolverhampton, Notts County, Swindon, Port Vale, Colchester are other examples, to name but a few, where the rules and instructions given to stewards are incomplete - if they don't allow the stewards to act on their own initiative - to prevent any potential, let alone serious risk, of public safety. The examples I have highlighted in previous Hi Viz stories at football grounds, have featured incidents where our coach drivers have been asked to perform dangerous manoeuvres - without any assistance from the stewards ( to prevent any interference from other traffic or pedestrians who might be at greatest risk of any harm ). The incidents I mentioned is not me nit-picking - they ARE serious. They have needed some participation from the stewards - who have mainly just stood on their allocated spot and just watched as events unfolded - instead of daring to leave their position to perform traffic control - but - then I'll be reminded that the stewards have no legal authority to 'control' any traffic - and THAT is where the system 'falls down.' -- BUT-- it is a problem that must occur at every home game for Barnsley (et al) - and surely the (very nice) stewards have the power of thought ? Why can't they see the situation and the obvious remedies ( @ Barnsley, a simple diversion sign would negate any risk of an accident ), and, if not willing to assist a struggling coach driver, at least report the problems when they have their de-brief. I struggle to accept that they do make such reports - because the problems and remedy is so obvious that even a monkey would realise the need - and when the problems and their remedies are not addressed, that is when I voice my frustration - at the (charming, pleasant, friendly) steward.
grumpygit - so basically what you are saying is you are now classified as a football hooligan, by entering a football ground with object(s) that can be used as a missile. You clearly don't understand the regulations of section 52, rule 3.6.9 - page 5,order 491,264 - paragraph 10 that such a breach is completely illegal under the same ticket terms and conditions as bottle caps. Not only have you committed a serious crime but you also bribe the hi viz brigade by allowing him/her a cut of your stash! Your photo will be distributed at all turnstiles and is punishable with a 2 year ban from the ground. It's no good you laughing this is very, very serious matter under yellow jacket brigade officialdom 2015. And here was me thinking we had left the 70's behind, how wrong am i, shocking, absolutely shocking!
brb We can extend 'silliness'' even further - I have yet to see anyone have a metal ( or plastic ) thermos flask (or its' lid), confiscated - and yet they contain a boiling hot liquid that can leave permanent scarring ! - BUT, I suppose that tea or coffee won't make the fan 'intoxicated' and be 'influenced' in the same way as a bottle of fizzy water ? And talking of 'fizzy water' - doesn't the bottle top 'removal' seem ridiculous when alcohol, and all its' 'influences' is sold for consumption inside the ground. Now - before you start on civil liberties and your right to be able to sensibly consume alcohol etc, it has got to be conceded that alcohol can make people do stupid things, ( unlike tea or coffee or a bottle of cola ). Therefore it is difficult for me to understand why it is sold inside the ground - ( other than for commercial purposes ), ( although at Bradford there was no alcohol to be had for the away supporters ). When my boys were small, I used to take a flask of boiling water, two Pot Noodles and two metal forks for their preferred half time 'snack.' My bag was routinely searched. The contents of the bag were not 'hidden', and yet the steward exercised common sense and allowed me to take into the ground my 'offensive weapons.' - at the same time, at Burton, at half time, I was high up into the away end stand, sitting quietly drinking from a can of Pepsi when Mr.Jobsworth came along and confiscated the can ( but I made him wait until I had finished drinking ). Quite clearly common sense among stewards does exist - or should I look upon it in a different way - and suggest that discrimination is being shown against those who are subjected to the full letter of the rules ? Are some of us being 'stereo-typed and 'chosen' for sledge-hammer tactics from the charming, friendly and ever-so-helpful stewards ? brb - you have caused the thread to slightly digress ( not a problem ) - but it does open up a whole new can of worms regarding freedom of movement etc. My Hi Viz stories do mainly feature examples of incidents where there is a lack of 'safe' traffic management and the obvious remedies that should be pointed out to their employers by the relevant set of stewards - but if YOU want to talk politics, I'm happy to oblige.
alwaysright - you know quite a few of my thoughts on freedom of movement. 1. Hi Viz should be banned from boarding away coaches to give a lecture. 2. Hi Viz have no right to impede any legal movement I make in or outside a ground. I include Priestfield against Blackpool which i highlighted in my post match thread. 3. Hi Viz should be as automatic process made to issue a ticket for every item confiscated detailing where it can be collected after the game. Yes a pain to administer but might create some common sense before confiscating items. Probably more....but i got work to go too LOL
brb and the greatest manager England never had also had an opinion about hoofball. On the subject of freedom of movement - Would I be mischievous to remind you that from today , you will be fined £50 if you smoke in your car and have occupants under the age of 18.
Agree he did. As for the fine, the police have already commented on it, they don't have the resources to police this...lol....therefore in so many words, probably will not! About time the government concentrated on more pressing issues, rather than instigate legislation that is unenforceable. Can you imagine the police pulling you over and asking the occupants for ID to prove their age. Then only to issue a £50 fine. It will cost more than that just for their efforts! Someone is driving on the motorway for a long journey from South to North with the family in the car, then the police pull them over on the hard shoulder for smoking...who then on the balance of probabilities has just created the highest risk to life, the smoker to his family or the officer with Lorries hammering past while they issue a ticket Anyone that thinks this is a great idea, needs to get a life, or maybe fill their time with charity work for the less fortunate. But just to clarify for those who don't know me, i don't smoke in my car and would certainly avoid smoking close to young children. The government is treating us like idiots, or is it this same avenue that i suspect of social cleansing.
Just what was going on in the Rainham End ( about 10 minutes into the game ? ) It took 5 stewards ( and Police back-up also arrived ), to 'bore to death' a chap behind the goal. From what I could see this chap, ( probably very close to pensionable age ), was sitting and not doing a lot wrong. Did he complain a little too loudly when others in front of him may have been standing and blocking his view - and, of course, the brave men in their bright jackets would have chosen to admonish him for daring to want to watch the game - rather than those stopping him from doing so ! Why did it take 5 stewards to 'deal' with this man - who subsequently ( 6-7 minutes later ), was allowed to watch the game in peace? Why didn't any one, two, three or four of these stewards attend to the fans who taunted them ? The answer to this conundrum - of course is because they needed to make the referee's decisions look like the work of a mastermind. ( You notice that I never called these charming, friendly and ever-so-helpful people a coward )
The Hokey Cokey - 'Chesterfield style' The ground is off a busy main road. Much traffic was using it at the time of our 'early' arrival. There are two entrances to the car park which skirts the perimeter of the whole ground. The first entrance that you reach is directly opposite the main doors to the ground. Vehicles drive off the main road, down the entrance road, to an inner service road, ( about 40 yards in from the main road ). Vehicles then turn left or right and use the car parking spaces which leads off this service road. At the point where vehicles reach the service road, if you turn left and drive about 50 yards, it is met by the second of the entrance roads into the car park complex - and drive about another 50 yards and you get to where the coaches park......... anyway.... At the junction of the first entrance road and the inner service road, there were 5 men in their bright jackets. They stood at their position as our coach turned off the busy main road and entered the entrance road - and made its' way down to the service road. There were no signs to prohibit this manoeuvre ! As we reached the innards of the car park, we were stopped by all 5 of the stewards. ( Obviously each of them wanted their share of the sweets we had on board ). We were told that we should have used the second entrance road into the complex. ( the second entrance road is not exclusive for coaches ). We were told to turn around, go out onto the busy main road - cross it - drive another 50 yards - cross the busy main road again and turn into the second entrance - drive down it to join the service road at a point that was only a few yards from the position that we were already at !!! then drive a few yards more to reach the coach parking places. This was a nonsense - even Peter Lloyd voiced his feelings- and our driver was a little more graphic in his thoughts. It was as well that the car park was virtually empty -because there would NEVER have been enough room to do what we did next if we hadn't arrived early. We had to turn right ( opposite direction to the coach parking places ). We than performed a snaking turn around in the car park - twisting around the few cars in situ - then we went back up the first entrance road and out onto the busy main road - drove a few yards, before going down the second entrance road and again joining the service road in the car park. Why ????? There was absolutely no reason or danger by merely driving along the service road - it's what it's there for ! Why couldn't there have been one steward at the main road point to divert coaches ? Why couldn't there have been a simple diversion sign at this point ? There would have been no need to speak to the Chesterield Hi Vizzzers. Why was it OK for the Gills team coach ( behind us ) to do what we weren't allowed - to merely turn left along the inner service road of the car park and drive the few yards to where we eventually parked next to it ?
alwaysright - it just goes to show our vocal concerns are valid, time and time again. Outside of the football itself, i think this is a primary concern for travelling supporters and in an age where safety is rammed down our throats by the establishment, yet they fail constantly to review their own actions. The first concern is why as at Orient with the police officers, are five men employed to stand together, surely their duties other than in two's are timed to an agenda of requirements for each of them prior to the match. A bit like ball boy positions if a simpleton method of explanation is required. I air my frustrations on this because everything always points the fingers at supporters, rather than the officials in control. They are not there to be little hitlers, they are supposed to be helping the day run smoothly, yet all we see is constant risks created through poor signage, jobs worth decisions and no common sense thought process. If Peter, who is normally a calm individual through my observations is voicing his feelings, then something is seriously wrong. As you have highlighted it would have taken one of those five officials to take their frigging hands out of their pockets and direct the coach to where it needed to go, as in previous incidents without all this snaking, twisting, risk taking diversions, because clubs cannot get their act together before the bloody great big coaches arrive on their weekly journey through the football season! Each club has access to the internet, each club has access to email, each club has access to contact phone numbers, all it takes is a message to say on arrival....blah, blah, blah...it's an official coach for god sake!
brb During our Service station stop, on the way up to Chesterfield, I discussed, with Peter Lloyd, the issue of communication by the clubs and by Kings Ferry. He states that communication by Kings Ferry is made ( or attempted ), prior to each game. Sometimes there is NO reply from the clubs where next we are due to play. Other times they tell the coach operator that the traffic management is the same as in previous years --- or -- in the exact words that Peter Lloyd was given " Park where you did last year." Clearly, there appears to be a 'low priority' to the issue of driver problems and/or danger to road users. Don't forget - the 'advice' is coming from people in an office, let alone anyone who knows of the difficulties of driving a sodding great coach in tiny streets. This is where my previous point of the importance ( and associated sense of duty ), of the responsibility of the 'home' stewards to report on issues that they see - even if they just stand there doing nothing - before compounding the problem with ridiculous, and even more dangerous expectations. This is when I get 'annoyed' with stewards, because IF they raise the issues during any 'de-brief', I find it incredible that the Home club wouldn't listen and implement very simple measures to prevent nonsense. e.g at Barnsley and Chesterield, a simple sign to divert coaches would have prevented some dodgy manoeuvres that the driver had to make. ( although, in both cases there were even SAFER options to that ). Oh well - there shouldn't be any trouble at Crewe - the coaches are permitted to stop outside the ground and let the passengers alight, before finding a place to park. The coaches then are permitted to park outside the ground after the match to allow the passengers to board and leave the area very quickly - ( hopefully with another 3 points).
alwaysright - exactly how Hillsborough started, the establishment wanting to blame everyone but themselves for incompetence. Even evidence in the last couple of seasons of congestion still at turnstiles in a top game due to bad management. For some reason if someone puts on a yellow jacket they are seen as authority. Hence how the imposter got into the Olympic games. People will not challenge them. At least this time it sounds as though Peter gave as good has he got and i no doubt you chucked in your pennies worth, frigging good job i weren't there LOL
What - nothing to report ?? Well, no, actually - not as far as it concerns the charming, friendly, ever-so-helpful sweet munchers. That isn't to say that our journey and safety wasn't seriously threatened by actions beyond the control of our driver - who you could see ( and hear ), lost a lot of his sense of humour - even before we left Medway. We were in Strood - going to a pick up at the Coach & Horses. We were travelling through the town centre when we encountered a motorist - who you'd have thought was on some sort of suicide mission ! The chap was in a white van - ( which might explain the lack of 'thought' ). He was waiting at the mouth of a junction to our left - ( only a very few feet in front of our position ). Only the driver can explain why he did what he did next !. This guy pulled out of the junction. It sent our driver into a bit of a panic. There was no way he could swerve out of his way - because pedestrians would have been skittled. His only offer to avoid 'broad -siding' the white van was to slam on the brakes. Peter Lloyd later ( during the obligatory H&S announcements), reminded us of the importance of wearing our seat belts. Our driver - and the destiny of the fabric of the front end of our coach, was now in the hands of 'white van man.' What could he do to avert what seemed to be an inevitable collision. Well, to his credit - he managed to redeem himself - but not without a huge stroke of luck. The look of horror on his face - when finally he bothered to look 'right', in our direction - (pity he didn't do it before emerging from the junction ), was something to behold. His panic sent his limbs into 'automatic' mode - his arms began to 'flail' around the steering wheel. He also lurched forward and 'smashed' onto his opposing pavement as he desperately sought the room to get around our coach before his van was broken in two. At this point this idiot got lucky - there was a 'break' in the pedestrians on that pavement - and there were no cones that got killed (Barnsley). So, by some miracle, there wasn't a collision - but that's not to say that there wasn't an 'accident' in the underwear of white van man ! We had a 'similar' incident at the tolls on the M6 Toll Road. We were in a queue of vehicles and almost at the toll booth - when the idiot in a car in the lane next to us somehow failed to see a 'sodding great coach' ( as succinctly described by our driver ). The car driver decided he just couldn't wait for the one car in front of him to pass through the booth - no - he decided that to violently 'dive' in front of our coach and jump ahead of us in the queue didn't pose a serious risk to the health of all - including the attendant in the booth. ( what a boring job ! ). Our driver showed his appreciation of the skill of the car driver - although I think he only sounded the horn of the coach to drown out the obscenity that was fully deserved.
Peter LLoyd had his head in his hands ! ( I thought I saw a tear ) It's been a bit quiet on the Hi Viz front lately - but things got back on track over the Christmas period. What a nightmare it was to get away from Millwall last week. ( it took an hour to get as far as New Cross Gate ). Most of the problem was trying to get out of the tight side road leading to the ground's car park. As we reached the junction with the next side road - before reaching the junction with the 'major' road ( Ilderton Road ), we were confronted with chaos. The coach began to emerge out of the first minor road - and was diagonally across the whole face of the road when an idiot in that road - ahead of us decided that he simply must visit the burger bar on our right. This fool proceeded to reverse down the middle of the road - towards our coach. We had nowhere to go - and couldn't get out of the way because of traffic stacked up behind us. On coming traffic took full advantage of the reversing nutcase - they 'surged forward - so now we had two lines of vehicles coming in our direction ! BUT- Nothing was going anywhere until our coach could be given room to clear their path. The only way that was going to happen was if the improvised traffic cones next to the burger bar was moved. These had been placed to create a clear area for customers. Thankfully, ( eventually ) it was just large enough to allow oncoming traffic to 'pull in', thereby allowing our coach to pass by. -- BUT NOT BEFORE - we were treated to some dodgy reversing by the idiot who was causing the mayhem. He / she nearly hit a dozy clown on a cycle - who pedalled right up behind the car as it continued to reverse - and just managed to wobble out of the way at the last moment. SO - WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH HI VIZ ? Well - whilst all this was happening, there were several Hi Vizzers and Police officers in the road - just standing there -doing nothing to 'control' the situation. They stood and watched the nonsense. The proceedings continued for several minutes. The traffic reached a choke point next to the burger bar. The reversing driver should never have been allowed his manoeuvre - but was not stopped by any of the officials. It then took a chap from the burger bar to move the [illegal] cones to create a 'passing point' to get the traffic flowing again - and all the time the Hi Vizzers were about as much use as the Millwall defence. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Swindon really don't like us! Peter Lloyd was in despair when we reached Swindon. Nobody from their club had bothered to inform him of the different parking arrangement for 'away' coaches. We negotiated the infamous 'Magic Roundabout' without any trouble. ( if you haven't been to Swindon, look it up on Google - I've had the pleasure several times -and it's always a treat ). We travelled to the usual 'away' point - having passed two parked police cars ( about 200 yards from the ground ). We were stopped by a Hi Vizzer ( in a blue version ), waving her clipboard at us. The driver duly obliged with her signal to stop. The steward asked if there were any disabled people on board. The question should have been if any on board had a problem with 'distance walking.' The driver's reply was that our only disability was supporting The Gills. This seemed to cause the steward to lose her Christmas spirit. This woman then 'told off' our driver - because he had gone past the turn off for 'away' coaches. She proceeded to rattle off a whole series of road names and manoeuvres at each junction, and telling us to arrive at St.Joseph's school to park up. Our driver told the woman that it was no good telling him all these road names - he wasn't from Swindon, and they meant nothing to him - and as for the school - the three wise men had more of a chance with a star to point therm in the right direction. Our driver told the woman it would have been an idea to have informed Kingsferry of the new arrangements and set off point - but the steward said that it wasn't her responsibility ( it's never their job when things go wrong ! ). The steward then waved her clipboard again and we were on our way. It transpired that we had to go back - past the awaiting police cars ( whose occupants were obviously too busy pulling their remaining Christmas crackers as to direct the coaches in the right direction ). We eventually got to the school and set off on the marathon to the ground. I was staggered with the instruction given by the stewardess - because the route that she instructed, that we should follow after alighting from the coaches, was directing the fans directly along the HOME end of the ground ! What was she thinking ? Was she deliberately setting up an ambush ? Thankfully we realised this situation for ourselves and used our initiative - to approach the ground from an alternative route ( about half the distance of the recommended route - and leading directly to the away end ) As for the Hi Vizzer - she was as much use as torn up Christmas wrapping paper. Happy New Year everyone.
The reason i love the message boards which once again highlights the incompetence of officials on match day. We await the day of another serious incident involving football supporters or the general passing public and how it will all be clouded to blame everyone but the people who are supposed to be ensuring safety.
