My most clear memory of this occurred in a match against British Rail ,Derby played at Shipley. Their No.4 was one Percy Bown who was a good striker of the ball and who went on to become an outstanding coach . However in this game I bowled him a rank long hop , his eyes lit up and the ball was whacked to deep mid wicket but unfortunately in the air. Fielding there was John Cox ( one of only 2 on the leg side) and he gleefully pouched the catch. Percy just could not believe it and stood at the crease staring in disbelief . He always had a ruddy complexion and by the second he got redder and redder before trudging off mouthing all sorts of complimentary words about my bowling. Reaching the dressing room he collected his gear, got in his car and stormed off, wheels screeching, with his pads still on.
I got over 900 tickets during my bowling stints so my apologies to all those Percy's !!
However the main stream of this tale concerns the tickets collected by Simon Lacey and his support for Derby County FC who after an up and down 2018/9 season still managed to appear in the play off final for the Championship against A Villa with the magic of the Premier beckoning for the winner. Using the internet he found a site offering tickets to the final and booked 3 tickets ( himself , Joe and Arthur) which arrived safely in the post. On match day they set off by car in a convey with other friends who he knew. They all arrived safely and made their way to the ground where Simon duly presented his tickets only to find that his web site tickets were for bus tickets to the game and not for the match itself.
I cannot imagine the sheer disbelief as they too trudged off !!. Apparently the web site he used had two tickable boxes -one for coach tickets- one for match tickets.
I shall always think of Simon and Percy when bus tickets are mentioned in the future !!
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