Apologies to South West Trains
in the post, where I outlined how I could get to Portsmouth on September 11th, I assumed that I would no longer be allowed to break my journey at Micheldever, as I have done many times in the past, due to the new barriers.
But after a reply from South West Trains, I now know that I was making the wrong assumption.
Here’s what they said.
I can confirm that a break of journey is valid on tickets for travel between London Waterloo and Fratton. Customers wishing to break their journey must ensure that they only travel to a station that is along a valid route for their ticket and that they only travel on times and dates that their ticket is valid for.
I can confirm that as Micheldever is between London Waterloo and Fratton, you will be able to break your journey at this station.
Customers may find at times that their ticket will not automatically let them through barriers at an intermediate station. If this happens, please show your ticket to the member of staff operating the barriers at the station in question so that they can let you through.
So it would appear that the old rules are still in place.
I shall now probably buy a Day Return from Whittlesford Parkway to Fratton. It looks like it’ll cost me £28.
Portsmouth on September the 11th
This will be my next match following Ipswich Town.
It might also need a bit of planning to get round the various ticketing regulations on the trains.
The easiest way would be to turn up at Whittlesford and buy a return ticket for Fratton, which is the nearest station to the ground. But this might be a problem as the ticket office there was unmanned yesterday and the automatic machine had been positioned so that the morning sunlight made it difficult to read.
Badly-Sited Ticket Machine at Whittlesford
These people were certainly having problems, so buying a ticket or collecting it from there might be a problem. I suppose I could get my ticket posted to my home.
So I think that I might take the train from Dullingham and go via Cambridge and King’s Cross, as I can buy a ticket from the conductor on the train. King’s Cross to Waterloo is also easier on the Underground than Tottenham Hale to Waterloo.
But the problem is that I can’t get a taxi at Dullingham, but I can pre-book one at Whittlesford.
But there is an additional complication. I want to have lunch with a friend at Micheldever, which is on the line to Fratton. So my journrey will actually be in three legs; Whittlesford to Micheldever, Micheldever to Fratton and Fratton to Whittlesford. It used to be that if you broke a journey and then continued on a later train in the same direction, that you could do this on the same ticket. I suspect this is now off the menu.
What is needed is a simple multiple ticket web site, where I enter the trains I want to travel on and then they post them to my house or I pick them up reliably at the first station.
I suspect that because of regulations though, I’ll need to buy a Whittlesford-Fratton return and buy an extra single ticket to get from Micheldever to Fratton.
And people think I’m getting paranoid!
Since I wrote that, I’ve found another problem. Not all trains to Fratton start from Waterloo and those of those that do not all go through Michedever, but the booking sites don’t seem to say which. It’s all very complicated. The Internet is supposed to make things simple not more difficult. Perhaps it would be easier to turn up and go at Waterloo and buy the tickets there. But that would mean I would have to leave earlier in the morning!
Portsmouth Go Bust
Well actually they are going into administration, but I suspect in their case it will mean the same thing. As I said earlier, who would buy a club, that doesn’t own the ground, the land around the ground, doesn’t have enough capacity and hasn’t really got any decent players or even a youth policy.
Where clubs have been bought without the ground, they have rarely succeeded.
So this looks to me like another stay of execution for a once proud club.
Who’d Buy Portsmouth Football Club?
Portsmouth are over £50million in debt and they are seven points adrift of the bottom of the Premiership. They also have no training ground, a small dilapidated stadium surrounded by land owned by one of the major creditors.
And yet, according to reports on the BBC, there are four or five interested parties, who want to take over the club. One South African group will provide proof of funds by Monday.
Now let’s suppose you are rich as Croesus. You also like football and feel that buying a football club would be good for your image, business interests and ultimately your bank balances.
There are quite a few clubs with rickety finances and some of these have brand new stadia and very good training facilities. As an example, Southampton has just been bought by a sensible Swiss millionaire, who appears to be enjoying his new role.
So would you buy Portsmouth if you were sane and had no other business with the owners?
No! Especially as you’re be buying a Championship Club.
Going Down?
The latest in the Portsmouth saga seems to make matters worse. According to the BBC, Peter Storrie and Avram Grant are not happy that players have been sold behind their backs.
I just think that Pompey are now at the end of the road. They face a winding up petition in the Courts on February 10th and I suspect that unless serious money turns up, they will end up in administration at best.
The point that no-one seems to say is that Pompey are favourites to go down and so the owners will lose a lot of money anyway. So would you put any more money into this type of sinking ship? Perhaps if you were a fool with money to burn. But no-one is that stupid are they? I suppose they could be if they bought a football club in the first place!
So it looks like there’ll be an extra place in Division 2 next year.
Will that be AFC Wimbledon? Now there’s a resurrection for you.
The Premier League Without Portsmouth
I was musing what would happen if Portsmouth should go bust and be unable to fulfil all of their fixtures in the Premier League. That is not to say they will, but HMRC are after a scalp and Portsmouth are an obvious target.
Arsenal and Aston Villa would be the biggest losers at the top, as they have already got six points out of the doomed team from the South Coast. West Ham however would end up bottom, as they lose four valuable points.
So perhaps, there are three clubs, in whose interest it is that Portsmouth don’t fail.
Crystal Palace Goes into Administration
Crystal Palace have now gone into administration with debts of about thirty million pounds. Several clubs, including Portsmouth, Notts County, Accrington Stanley and others, have been hovering around this for some months in these most tricky of financial times. It is a big step for a football club, as they are immediately docked ten points and in most cases, such as Leeds and Southampton, it has meant relegation.
But just as Southampton have shown, there can be life after administration.
But there are differences between Southampton and Crystal Palace. Southampton have a modern stadium, which I believe they own, and are in an area without too many other football clubs. Crystal Palace are close to Charlton and it is easy to get to the other clubs over London. Crucially, I don’t think they own their ground. It’s a dump anyway and probably needs to be redeveloped.
So whereas someone looking to invest in a football club might well choose Southampton, they would be unlikely to choose Crystal Palace.
The future looks grim for Palace and especially with HMRC getting a lot tougher, I have a feeling that they would love to see to see a football club cease to exist. As Dan Snow pointed out in his excellent television programme, Empire of the Seas, the shooting of Admiral Byng for cowardice, did wonders for the Royal Navy. As it says in Wikipedia.
Byng’s execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that “in this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others”
I suspect that if they fail to get the scalp of Crystal Palace, they will get another before the end of the season.
The Anonymous Widower 