By Whaley Shark
November 9 2013

Soooooo Sale are playing at 7.45 on Friday, and I am off to London for work from Wednesday until Friday afternoon. Better start planning then….. 

If I get the 4.20 train from Euston, get off at Macclesfield and jump straight into the car and head for Barton, I should just about do it. So let’s give it a go. After cruising round the Macclesfield station car parks for a bit on Wednesday, I got the only remaining place in a car park where I could leave the car for more than a day, and £20 bit the dust to pay for it (thanks Mr Branson, and Cheshire East Council).

On the way back, at least the first bit of my plan worked just fine- I got into the car at 6.15 and set off to join the M56 at Manchester airport, aiming for the M6 and the A57 to Barton Airfield. After all, I’ve just smugly informed Sand Dancer Shark, on this very board, what a wonderful route that is. But then the travel news says the M6 is closed at Thelwall viaduct- I’m close to Wilmslow and need to make a decision- stick with the M56 and go over Warburton Bridge, or try the M60? Well, I have sat in my seat and watched the traffic flow smoothly over the bridge pretty much every game this season, while Warburton Bridge is fiddly and slow. M60 it is.

But not tonight! The cheerful voice on the radio says the M60 has a lane closed beyond Barton, but I am only a couple of miles away and it’s still almost an hour to kick off. That should be all right- say an extra 20 minutes in the queue, I should still be fine. And here is the queue, which looks pretty chewy. I stick with it past Junction 9 and then realise they are taking all the traffic on the whole motorway into the inside lane, the one where all the match traffic is queueing to get off at Junction 11. So everything is moving at the pace of the traffic heading for the match. That’s slow! Half an hour later, and half a mile further on, I’m clearly not going to make kick off, and it’s decision time.

I can either get off at Junction 10, turn round and go home, or crawl all the way up and over Barton Bridge and I reckon I‘ll probably get off the motorway about half time. Stuff it; I’m going home. So that’s it, £ 30 of parking and fuel, and two hours of my life wasted, and no match report- my third home game missed in 2013, having missed none in the previous eight years. But at least I’m home by the fire with some of the evening left.

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed in a fortnight against Worcester. In the meantime, my sympathies for all those who are probably still watching their lives tick slowly away on Barton Bridge.