Gridlocked!

Leyton Orient 3 Gillingham 1

There are plenty of firsts watching football, but last night I suffered a first that I hope I never have to experience again.

We left Tunbridge Wells at 4.30, the satnav said we would arrive at 5.40. Unlike the trip to Southend we sailed down the M25 to the A2, up which we fairly flew. But, by this time we heard a traffic report that the Blackwall Tunnel was being closed "intermittently" to ease flow because of an "incident" on the A12. We arrived and stopped at the Tunnel at around 5.15, but we did actually get through the tunnel before 6.00 so we were relatively happy.

At which point we stopped and for the next two hours we travelled no more than a mile. On the radio we started hearing the news regarding the Gillingham players that had also failed to make the kick-off, we phoned Orient and asked if there would be a delayed start and that produced just about the only laughter of the evening. Having been told no, it was remarked that nobody could be there as they were all on the A12. "Frank, look out of the window," she said. Frank did as he was told and reported back . . . "there's a few trickling in!"

We picked up Radio Kent with a decent reception and listened to the first half. At half time we were still two miles away and as we had only done one mile in the previous two hours there seemed little hope of seeing even five minutes.

We came off the A12 and dropped down into Hackney with the hope that the tom-tom could sort us out but it was just as gridlocked away from the main road.

As the second half started we made the unanimous decision (4 in the car) that if we could extricate ourselves from the traffic we would give up and go home. The game was nearly finished before we managed to get ourselves on the empty southbound side of the A12.

By the time I reached home I had been in the car for 5 minutes short of 7 hours, wasted half a tank of petrol, a £20 match ticket and all for a bloke that is probably being fed and watered at Her Majesty's pleasure this morning.

In 50 years of travelling to football matches, I have never not managed to reach the game I set out to watch. I've had more than a few that have been called off because of weather en-route or even got to the ground to find out it's off, but never had anything like this.

Lesson learnt: Next time we play at the Orient, I'm going by train!

Wasted mileage: 110
Wasted ticket: £20
Wasted time: 7 hours

And here is the man that caused it all