Travelling back from a wonderful weekend in London with stepson and his girlfriend.
Went down by train Saturday morning and whilst waiting at Cambridge station about a dozen blokes and 2 women come and stand a few feet away and start getting a bit boisterous. No one younger than at least 25 and most looked to nudging 40+ and all carrying a 4 pack of Red Stripe each. My wife and I get into a carriage while they seemed to be getting into the next one. Felt a bit relieved but was quickly disappointed when that carriage, (like the one we had entered), seemed to be full so they squashed into ours. We were standing by the trackside doors as there were no seats anywhere and people were standing in the aisle. As the train moved away they started getting a bit rowdy and using foul language so I asked them to tone the noise down a bit and cut out the foul language as there were women and young children around. They calmed it down for about 10 minutes before it started getting as bad as before and they were openly 'bragging' about who would alert the train police and have them waiting at Kings Cross like last time, (it was an express straight through so no stops). My wife me one of 'those' looks to stay calm so I stood firmly where I was with my back to them and each time one jolted into me simply stood firm. My wife had her phone set with the railway police number on instant contact so if it got out of hand she just pressed the call button. Get to London and before they piled off a thickset bloke who had been standing in the aisle suddenly announced in a very loud, calm voice for everyone to be quiet. It went very quiet as he announced he had contacted the police during the journey about their behaviour. That instantly brought a loud chorus of laughs, jeers and threats from the group as the doors opened. He didn't hear this gentleman announce to the rest of the carriage that there would also be a number of soldiers from his regiment waiting at the gates as well. Turns out he was the CSM of a Military Police unit, (Red caps), meeting up at London for onward travel to their camp together. Sure enough as we began walking down the platform there were soldiers and train police slowing everyone down so they could single out the trouble makers. The CSM was ahead of us, as my wife is disabled and walks slowly, and by the time we were passing he was calling over the 2 women who had separated themselves from the group in an attempt at innocence. Don't know what the final outcome was but they did not leave the station during the 15 minutes we stood outside having a cigarette and coffee that my stepson had bought us. Oh and the carriage was littered in that particular spot with loads of empty beer cans.
