CHRIS Hayton of Kendal Rugby Club tells me that when he was researching early club history in preparation for the club's centenary celebrations, he noticed that, in several instances, visiting teams 100 years ago travelled up by train from London on a Saturday morning.

After playing the match they boarded a train back to London the same evening.

"You couldn't do that today," he said.

In a way that ties in with something I spotted when booking rail tickets on the Internet.

I accidentally typed in a departure time, which was an hour earlier than the current time.

The machine immediately came up with a reprimand saying: "It is not possible to start your journey in the past."

Ah if only we could. A ride on the Flying Scotsman as it made its steamy evening dash south would be wonderful, except that it would be impossible to get to the bar because of the coarse antics of those returning rugby players.