LETTER: ‘Samaritan Steve’ is a souper-star!

On Fridays I usually join a group in Clitheroe for a healthy Stepping Out three-mile walk. So there I am, a week last Friday, sitting in the car’s passenger seat, lacing up my boots, when my car-keys slide out of my pocket and drop with a splash through the grating into a road-gulley.

An hour or so later, my wife joins me – with the spare keys!

I manage to lift the grating and stare down at the black pool of water three feet below the road. My wife is on her knees beside me, when a lady’s voice behind us asks “Have you had an accident?” My wife explains we are trying to work out how we can recover the keys.

“What we need is a long-handled spoon – like a soup-ladle”, says my wife, an expert in lateral thinking. “No problem! My mother lives opposite, and I’m sure she has got one!” A soup-ladle is swiftly produced and the lady’s long-armed husband offers to fish for the keys – which only an hour ago seemed unattainably lost forever. He gets down on his knees beside us at the kerb-side – and Oh Joy! Up come the keys at the second attempt. Thank you Steve!

Moral for motorists: “Make sure you carry a soup-ladle, as well as a tow-rope. You never know when it may come in handy.”

CHRISTOPHER RATCLIFF,

Church St,

Ribchester.