Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!

Wednesday 4 December – I am heading for the Round Chapel in Hackney today. At Bat & Ball station this morning a Christmas tree had been placed between the two platform seats near the café on platform two. I wanted to purchase an Off-Peak One Day Travelcard for my journey but the ticket machine and all information screens at Bat & Ball station were not working this morning. Accordingly, I travelled to Sevenoaks on the 09.52 which arrived there one minute early and then bought my ticket there. I had expected that this would have prevented me from travelling on the 09.59 service to Waterloo East, but this train was running two minutes late and I managed to board it. Arrival in London was eight minutes late. If this train was running to time buying my ticket at Sevenoaks would most likely have resulted in at least a fifteen minutes delay to my journey. I wonder if a delay due to a non-working ticket machine would be accepted as a valid reason for a Delay Repay claim?