The problems on the M25 were actually due to roadworks on the M4. That was down to one lane and was tailing back for miles, past the M25. This meant people coming off the M25 to the M4 were queueing and it just got stupidly out of hand (the queue for the M25 to M4 slip road was beyond painful). They were still queueing for miles when I was going the other way on the way back. If anyone was kicking off with the driver for not going the M25 way, they were very very wrong.

I've been stuck on that section of the M25 on more than one occasion before, but never that bad.

I got to the M25 at about 11:30. I got into the ground at 15:02. It took something like 3 hours to get just short of 25 miles on the M25.

I was very lucky I set off so early. Poor Paul124897 wasn't so lucky. He arrived 10 minutes before the end of the match.

The trip was absolutely terrible, but thankfully the match made up for it. There were some excellent performances and only the one god awful one (Worrincy was shocking apart from his try). Nero and Tadulala carved them up in the first half, as well as Halley doing some brilliant backup work. Langley made some absolutely superb tackles that showed just what a quality defender he is.

We went on the bus to Celtic with an early start, easy trip, and a couple of hours to spare for ambience (boozing) prior to the match.
Checked about the bus to Harlequins and told it would set of at 9am. Hmm if IR last year the bus was late to the match and the previous year also.
Declined the opportunity to travel on the bus with such an unreasonably late set off time.
Seems we don't learn.
Shock Horror!, there's heavy traffic on the M25
Breaking News! there's roadworks on a slip road.
Unbelievable! there's traffic jams in London on a saturday.

Just a quick one;

After being stuck on the M25 for a few hours today, and I know I wasn't alone as there were more Bulls around me on that stretch of road.. I did not get to the game until the 65th minute of play. (I set off at 9:30 am too)

Will the club do a refund or have I just lost the money for 4 tickets, when I only saw 15 minutes of action

I set off at 9:30. Still, I took my 3 passengers along the Thames so the journey wasn't completely wasted.

Still sucked though.

The bus wasn't late last year.
9am to 3pm is six hours. That should and would normally be enough time to get to London with time to spare. Most people on the bus were sensible enough to realise it was nobodies fault that we were late.
The driver tried his best. He went as fast as he dared on the few stretches of clear road once we got to London, but from the end of the M1 to the Twickenham road was solid traffic. I've never seen it that bad before.

I feel sorry for you but is it really the club's fault that you missed most of the game?

When we arrived at the ground, we were ushered in through the big gates to get us in as soon as possible. They did their best. The Bulls couldn't do anything about the situation either.
I'd just chalk it down to experience and consider setting off really early next year.

Nope, it most definitely isn't the clubs fault - and in no way am I blaming them.

I merely feel short changed, that despite setting off early and on a similar time to most other fans, there were some who didn't even make it to the game because of the traffic.

It would be a 'niceity' that those fans, who got stuck, could get there money back. That is all

.

Next year, I'm going down the night before and staying over to avoid this scenario again!

Good result though.

Macca still un-trustworthy?

Maybe.
Perhaps they'll give you a discount voucher or something. It was good to see so many Bulls fans there despite our bad results this season. People who are prepared to travel so far to see our third from bottom team deserves some kind of encouragement.

I guess the traffic would be better on Sunday, maybe we should push for a Sunday match next year?
We were back in Bradford in 4.5 hours (with a 30 minute stop) so it wouldn't be a very late finish.

Yours about last yesr's arrival is technically correct in that the bus arrived minutes before the kick off and you obviously agree about the year before that being a long time after.
My point is valid. From history good planning would include a comfort zone for arrival and a little time for socialities. Previous years trips have been too far on the knuckle for timing and these lessons have not been learned.
It is unreasonable not to plan for traffic delays in or around London, and your comment that you have never seen traffic so bad is naive. It is that bad now on a regular basis as any driver in that area will tell you.
The mileage of the journey is not germaine rathert the time it takes to cover those miles. I would reiterate that previous lessons have not been learned.

Commiserations to all the afflicted. I remember going down to Charlton in the fog and not only seeing only the last twenty minutes but also only being able to make out about a third of the playing area. And we lost. What year was that, centenary?

We travelled down on the Friday as we were staying in Reading with a friend. It took us 6 hours to get down. The M25 was a nightmare then too.
We only just made kick off yesterday though too, due to an incompetent ticket man at the station and then some idiotic stewarding at the Stoop.
But commiserations to those who got in late. And well done to all who travelled down, a really good turn out under the circumstances.

I had problems also, but I went down on the train, getting there was ok but coming back, never again.

Signal failure outside London Euston ment that we were stuck on the train for a good 20 minutes somewhere North of Vauxhall.

Should have been on the 1840, ending up getting the 1940.

At least there wasn't a "I LOVE GOD" do on at Twickenham this year

Well make sure you're not tempted to save a few quid and book a non refundable hotel like we did for the Feb clash. We lost £40 due to the cancellation..

Just out of curiosity surely someone at the Bulls would have been aware that the supporters coach had not arrived close to kick off? Why was the kick off not delayed?

Were you there yesterday? Did you see that traffic? If not, I would suggest you haven't a clue what you're talking about. I've been to the Quins away game pretty much every year. I've also travelled down to Reading on numerous occasions to visit a pal there. I've done that exact stretch of motorway loads of times. And I have never once seen it close to as bad as it was yesterday. If you think that just because London traffic is always bad, then traffic like yesterday's should be expected, it is you who is the naive one. 3 hours for 25 miles is NOT in any way normal London traffic. I planned for traffic delays. I set off 7 hours before kick off, despite any sat nav or directions website saying it's approx a 4 hour drive. I still got there after kick off.





I saw a sign, it was on last weekend. We missed it by 7 days this time.

I'd still go down.

Probably why you're so popular with the ladies

Hmmm London is perhaps more a novelty to you, personally I detest the place and certainly wouldn't go there for a break!

Thank **** for that mate, last year was a farce to say the least as you had the Quins v Bulls game and 80,000 people streaming out of Twickenham all wanting to use the same station.





funny all the same like.

Correct Andrea. I can`t recollect actually being late at the Stoop, or even particularly close to being late to be honest and I`ve not missed many.

The one occasion I remember being late for a London game (apart from yesterday)was at the Valley (this was in the days when we had the likes of Dave Watson at full back and I think Brian McDermott was just starting his carrer in the pack). There was a pile up on the M1 and we were diverted though Luton and Dunstable, we crawled one yard at a time. We arrived IIRC at what should have been well into the second half, but fortunately (for us) it had been very foggy and the referee had hung on to see if it would clear, so we actually missed very little.

Our directions missed out the M25, so it's sounds like that was a good thing. Still took a while to get there once we got off M1.

I'd never been into Central London until yesterday. All I'll say is that

a) Down south they can't drive. We had people cutting us up left right and central and just being idiots.

b) People in London cross roads whenever they like. I nearly ran hundreds of people over.

c) They're all mad raving lunatics.

Either way though, I actually liked central London, especially walking along the Thames. Will be experiencing the nightlife next year I think along that stretch by the Millenium Bridge.