How transport woes can tarnish the joys of bank holiday sport

British people enjoy every bank holiday weekend as if they were gifts sent down from on high, mini-vacations that send everyone into a whirlwind of barbecuing and chilled beverages.

It’s different for sports journalists.

A gaggle of people over the past decade or so have rung me for some spurious work reason on a Monday morning – a PR pitch, some sort of marketing guff – and made the mistake of asking if I enjoyed my weekend. Usually I will then regale them with in-depth stories from my time in the office, possibly a Sunday afternoon spent trying to ignore the record-setting heat outside as Burnley and Huddersfield play out a tactically intriguing 0-0 draw.

That is multiplied on bank holidays, particularly around Christmas and Easter when the sporting calendar tends to rev up rather than calm itself down in anticipation of some family time.

This Easter was no different with a full Championship schedule on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Easter Sunday was no picnic either – except for the joyful hordes over the road enjoying sausage rolls in the sunshine.

It’s all part of the fun of course, and for our team it is a chance to enjoy the full glare of attention as the news cycle spins decisively towards sports coverage. It’s shame then that this is often made tricky on Bank Holiday weekends when we’re trying to attend fixtures that have been smeared across four days for television reasons.

Train companies are not popular at the best of times but it is over these holiday periods that they tend to really put the incompetent cherry on that privatised cake.

The lack of thought when scheduling engineering works, closures and diversions regularly causes chaos for sports fans (and reporters) who are treated poorly by the authorities and overcharged by clubs who know there is an almost interminable supply of supporters ready to replace them.

On Monday night, Transport for London had closed the branch of the Tube line that takes fans to and from Stamford Bridge. The problem was that Chelsea had a home game, thus sparking a transport nightmare for miles around the stadium.

It’s enough to drive you to a nice cool drink in the park (while I head back to the office). Just don’t call the morning after to tell me all about it.

Yours,

Ed Malyon

Sports editor