A worcester - Taunton Off Peak return is valid after 08:50, so you should actually be perfectly legitimate travelling on the 08:57 service. 

Thanks for replies.

Off-Peak Day Return tickets are not valid on the 08.57 from Worcester to Ashchurch (next station). Difference in price between Off-Peak & Anytime Return is just 5p (^4.70 and ^4.75)

So the only option from where I live is Cradley Heath to Ashchurch anytime return at ^9.05 instead of ^5.55 Cradley Heath to Worcester return. Extra cost is ^3.50, so save money by cutting back on cups of tea during the day! Surprising how expensive just a few minutes can be!

Looks like it is still a practical proposition for a couple of good days out during the 7 day period.

19. Using a combination of tickets:
You may use two or more tickets for one journey as long as together they cover the entire
journey and one of the following applies:
(a) they are both Zonal Tickets (unless special conditions prohibit their use);
(b) the train you are in calls at a station where you change from one
ticket to another; or
(c) one of the tickets is a Season Ticket (which for this purpose does not include
Season Tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport
executive or local authority) or a leisure travel pass, and the other ticket(s) is/are not.
You must comply with any restriction shown on the tickets relating to travel in the trains of
a particular Train Company or Train Companies (see Condition 10).
If you do not comply with this Condition, you will be treated as having joined the train
without a ticket and the relevant parts of Condition 2 or 4 will apply, either to the entire
journey, or from the last station where the train stopped at which at least one of the
tickets was valid.
For the purposes of this Condition, a ^leisure travel pass^ means any multi-journey ticket
(excluding Season Tickets) valid for:
(i) at least 7 consecutive days; or
(ii) at least 3 days in a period of at least 7 consecutive days
and includes rover tickets, travel passes, flexipass tickets and Britrail passes.

Lack of platform space at Taunton, trains can only arrived into plats 2 + 3 so either need to shunt into 4/5/6 or block the platform till next working.

Rail operator First Great Western has apologised to passengers after a train driver forgot to stop at Didcot Parkway on Wednesday night. Dozens of passengers were affected by the mistake which meant they had to wait 30 minutes at Swindon station before returning to Didcot. The company blamed "driver error" but added that the driver was checked after the incident and deemed fit for duty. An investigation into the matter is being carried out.

Christopher Proctor, 37, from Abingdon, was one of the passengers on the 1815 Paddington to Swansea service. He said: "I was surprised when the train went shooting through Didcot Parkway because it's a scheduled stop on the service. It went through at full tilt and then slowed down when I guess the driver realised what they'd done. We heard a pre-recorded message over the Tannoy along the lines of 'could the train manager please contact the driver'. We then had a very sheepish train manager apologise over the Tannoy, citing 'unforeseen circumstances' as the reason for not making the scheduled stop."

Mr Proctor estimated that up to 150 passengers were affected.

A First Great Western spokesman said: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers who wished to get off the train at Didcot.  The incident was down to a driver error and the driver was met at Swindon, where he was checked and deemed fit for duty. We do take this sort of thing seriously and a full investigation will be carried out, which will take up to 28 days to complete."

I think the best prevention is detection equipment (cameras or something more automated) that allows someone (or a computer system) to check if cars are present before the train is allowed to come close to the crossing.