DE BUGGING

 

There was an incident that occurred one Sunday morning in 2005 in Worthing Sussex.

It was during a Sunday morning football match between two potbellied pub teams made up of the usual mix of the overweight, the out of shape and the out of breath.

Five minutes before the interval while everyone’s attention was focused on one end of the pitch a man on a disabled vehicle trundled his way to the center circled where he parked.

He was instantly surrounded by irate players from both teams, when I say instantly it was as soon as the players could get there, and they may not have been irate at all they may just have overexerted themselves running half the length of the pitch.

The referee tried to calm the situation and decided to blow for half time early in order to defuse things.

The match officials questioned the man as to the nature of his protest and it turned out that he was fed up with players and spectators parking on and blocking the cycle path which was his access through the park.

The referee was sympathetic but explained he could do nothing about it and five minutes later the disabled gentleman was escorted from the pitch.

Fortunately, there were no further incidents in the second half and sadly there was no football either.