Bangers for dinner

SIR – In the early Sixties, our scout patrol camp meal included a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie (Letters, May 16). Realising we did not have an oven, we decided to heat the unopened pie in a billy can of boiling water over the wood fire.

A little later a loud explosion was heard, and one of our number reported feeling something whistle past his ear. The billy can was left with a large hole in the side. The pie and its contents were never found. Peter Turner

Swannington, Leicestershire