Cheers! To two couples for different reasons

Let’s try to end a gloomy week – newswise – on an upbeat note shall we? For there are two stories in today’s paper which have filled our hearts with joy – for two very different reasons.

And we feel they are both worth crowing about.

Firstly, there is the top award for The Cricketers Inn at Curdridge. We shall come back to that in a while.

But secondly, and equally as heart-warming, is our main story today – that of 72-year-old ‘miracle man’ Keith Tyler and, certainly not to be forgotten, his wife Tina. What that couple have been through in the past year is incredible.

Put yourself in Tina’s shoes. What would you have done had you been faced with her nightmare scenario –your husband trapped under your four-tonne motorhome with life-threatening injuries?

Keith was fixing wheels beneath the vehicle in October last year when it fell off the jack before crushing his head, as Tina, 70, watched.

The pair must be made of strong stuff indeed, physically and mentally – Keith to eventually pull through despite a doctor telling Tina her husband was not expected to live.

But there’s a lovely twist to this happy tale – there’s a missing police constable, PC Josh Cottrell, who was Tina’s ‘rock’ throughout those dreadful first few hours and beyond.

He comforted her and stayed with her afterwards, but now they have lost touch. Wouldn’t it be great if, as a result of this story, they could ‘find’ each other again?

And back to The Cricketers Inn, just a 20-minute drive from Portsmouth city centre.

After so much dreadful news from the pub industry in the past two years, is it not refreshing to report something upbeat from this fine pub with the richly-deserved county and regional awards.

Congratulations to Sally and Stuart Downie. Cheers!