As Premiership referee and experienced traveller Tony Spreadbury passed his hand luggage through the x-ray machine at Bristol airport last month, he wasn’t expecting sirens and flashing lights. But that’s exactly what he got.

En route to Bayonne to referee a match between a French amateur XV and Romania, he arrived at Bristol airport knowing that the schedule was tight - a journey of three connecting flights had to go without hitch if he was to make kickoff. Economising on time, he carried only hand luggage, which therefore contained his full match kit.
When the sirens went crazy, Spredders was informed that whistles can’t be carried on board by passengers. Thinking quickly to avoid the delays of checking them in, he suggested that his match whistles could be carried on personally by the captain, and returned to his possession when the flight landed in Brussels. Problem solved, or so he thought.

Upon arrival, Spredders was disappointed to learn that according to the regulations, the whistles would have to be collected from the airport by dispatch rider and taken to baggage reclaim. Spredders raced to the conveyor belt - to find no sign of the whistles. After a while, he happened to catch a glimpse of the luggage coming off a recently arrived flight from Helsinki. On the conveyor belt was a small envelope.... the whistles! How they got there we’ll never know, and Spredders didn’t hang around to find out. He raced off to catch flight number two.

Happily, the remainder of the journey passed without incident and Spredders was allowed to keep a tight grip on his whistles all the way.