Back at the SVR

I shot round the M6 toll road on Saturday morning, full of anticipation for our latest lads’ day out on the trains. We met up at Bridgnorth station for another go on the wonderful SVR. Such a lovely valley to wend one’s way down in a heritage DMU, after the first cup of tea of the day. It’s now 64 years since we got our act together, coalescing around a shared neighbourhood, park football and the school railway society. Our twice-yearly reunions include a statutory railway backdrop - a familiar, scenic environment in which to update, to reminisce and to plan for more. Mostly, though, it is to reinforce friendships that have stood the test of time and that still offer continuity and reassurance in a continually changing and increasingly challenging world. And we were doing so well until VAR denied Beto his equalizer, and with that a precious away point for Everton vapourised, too. From ecstasy to dejection in a matter of seconds. Which just goes to show that although you can’t have everything you wish for, it’s just as important not to lose sight of the things that really matter. EFC will bounce back again. They always have, I muttered to myself, as I succumbed to a longer ride home than I’d expected, as I tried to extricate myself from the vortex that is inner Wolverhampton and then queued with the rest of the traffic on the southbound M6. Just like the marginal offside, motorway congestion is a small price to pay when compared to the camaraderie of true friendship.