Letter: Nonsense to suggest that queuing problems at Murrayfield were caused by late arrival of fans

SO, Andy Robinson was unhappy that his carefully planned preparations for the recent game against Ireland were upset by the 15-minute delay in getting the game under way?

To date, I've read reports blaming everything from Festival crowds to the tooth fairy, but most implicated turnstiles unable to cope with the late arrival of supporters making use of the innovation of being able to buy tickets at the gate on match day.

What nonsense: that never amounted to more than a handful of people at any one time.

The massive queue causing the problems comprised loyal fans who had bought online and were picking them up from a ticket office seemingly woefully understaffed despite the fact that the SRU must have been aware how many tickets had been paid for but were still to be collected.

And don't let's hear any rubbish about supporters causing the delay by turning up at the last minute, as seems to be implied on the SRU website, which says that spectators are "encouraged to be there 30 minutes before kick-off" and "many supporters arrived after that period".

I'm sure many did … but many also arrived well before that and still had to wait for a long, long time.

When we got there, the queue already ran from the ticket office up to the street, all the way along the front turnstiles and gates, then down the side road parallel to the railway almost as far as the clubhouse at Murrayfield's back pitches.

That's a fair distance and it didn't just materialise in a few minutes.

I'm not certain exactly how long we had to wait but reached the ticket office just as the game kicked off, and there was still a massive queue behind us.

We missed the first nine minutes and it would be interesting to know when the last person managed to get their ticket or how many gave up and headed for the nearest pub to watch the telly.

To rub salt in the fans' wounds, and it certainly annoyed many around us, stewards were sent along the queue advertising the fact that you could avoid the wait by buying tickets and walking straight in. But the purveyors of this message refused to say whether, in these circumstances, the purchase price of either ticket would be refunded.

Was it really being suggesting people pay twice to watch one game?

They also made a strange claim about delaying the game on the grounds of safety, as there were so many spectators still outside the ground. But whatever that safety issue was at 2:15pm surely also applied at 2:30pm as there were still huge numbers outside the ground?

Bear in mind that the stadium was less than half full. Yet there have been twice as many spectators there in the past without anything like this chaos.

ARTHUR ALLAN

DUNFERMLINEWith Hearts' best at heart

AT the beginning of the 80s, I had the privilege to be appointed secretary of the reconstituted Heart of Midlothian Shareholders' Association. Our remit was to increase the equity to allow investment from those with sufficiency of finance to ensure the football club's survival from previous bad times.

Wallace Mercer and his successor Chris Robinson then kept the club going with some success.

Their tenure was followed by the club's ownership by Vladimir Romanov. Most supporters accepted his reign initially but with some reservations where the club was going.

The sacking of Jim Jefferies is the final straw. Better to be a small club than to be married to someone without the long-term interests of Hearts.

RONALD WATT

EDINBURGH