A straightforward away fixture turned into a gruelling road trip. No, not Newcastle in the Cup, but us on a 14-hour sleeper bus from Aurangabad to Ahmedabad.
Things started smoothly as we made good progress in the first third. No, not Newcastle in the Cup...
We suffered a breakdown at left back and things went downhill from then on. No, not Newcastle, etc...
The roads in Marashstra state are like quarry tracks, absolutely appalling, so a puncture in the middle of nowhere at 10pm had all the blokes off the bus and gathered round the back wheel to have a look.
It was when one of them started hitting the burst tyre with a stick that I realised none of them would be in the pits with Lewis Hamilton next season.
One of the crew got under the chassis on a bit of rug and each time he prised a lump of shredded rubber out (it was the 'inside' tyre), the driver inched the bus forward and everyone yelled and sprang out of the way.
When enough tyre had been extracted we all jumped back in and off we trundled, with a worrying judder coming from the nearside rear. Still, we'd always have a bed.
Waking up some hours later, Newcastle had an unassailable two-goal lead against Oxford and we had rolled into a bus garage... somewhere.
The blokes were gathered around the back end again, hitting the buses nether regions with a metal bar this time.
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| Pick a tyre... |
By the time we got rolling again, the Toon had somehow pulled the fat of the fire and our respective late shows had borne fruit.
After a few hours kip I woke up to find the spare wheel almost in bed with me as we pulled over for a comfort break in a lay-by, then onward for breakfast at a proper service station.
Someone kindly told us there was engine trouble and we may have to change to a smaller bus. So much for that bed.
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| New tyre. Note inverted mudflap. And they still missed a nut off. |
And we'd been on the road for 24 hours.
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| Wheel's within wheels |
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