Yorkshire CCC’s ticket system needs to be subjected to a Bairstow-like onslaught - Yorkshire Post Letters

I wonder how many cricket-loving readers have experienced recently the endless loop of recorded messages, trite music and long periods of ringtones that masquerade as a ticket-office service at Yorkshire County Cricket Club at Headingley.

The shambolic operation has long had a reputation of being harder to penetrate than our politicians’ tax affairs.

It is now bringing the standards of incompetency to world-record levels.

I spent almost five hours - on three separate occasions - hanging on fruitlessly for someone to deign to answer.

As a member, I had a simple ticket query, but the one member of staff - I assume it is one from the 45 minutes it took to deal with a person ahead of me in the queue - remained more elusive than a Yorkshire victory last season.

May I suggest that the bright, but intensely annoying, muzak be replaced with something more sombre, as befits the telephone land of the lost souls – for example Chopin’s Funeral March or, to be slightly more modern and at least entertaining, the Stones ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’.

The entirely untruthful message that the waiting call is ‘very important to us’ could perhaps be changed to: ‘We don’t give a damn for your call, you can hang on if you wish – after all you’re paying for the call – but we won’t answer … and as for tickets – forget it.’

The tragedy is that this is an entertainment business that relies on ticket sales to help pay the bills and support the Yorkshire sides. My experience suggests you would find it easier to win the lottery, having first survived being struck by lightning, than secure a ticket for a Yorkshire match by phone

I feel sorry for the ticket office staff, whom I’ve found invariably helpful and pleasant when I’ve dealt with them personally.

It is the system that should be subjected to a Bairstow-like onslaught.