AN 88-YEAR-OLD war veteran today spoke of the moment he used a bottle of whisky to fight off a street robber.

Roy Smith and his wife Susan, 86, of Bacup, were returning home from Bacup Leisure Centre after winning a bottle of Famous Grouse in a raffle.

They were approached by a man who jumped from the stairs leading up to Crooked Shore who asked for the time.

He then produced a metre-long plank of wood and threatened the couple before demanding the bottle.

Roy, a World War Two veteran who served in the Orkneys with the army, said: "I didn't know what to do. My first instinct was to protect Susan so I yelled at her to run home and call the police.

"In the meantime the man was waving a huge plank of wood at me telling me to hand over the bottle. I was determined not to give it to him so I started waving the bottle at him warning him that I wasn't going to give in without a fight."

The retired caretaker added: "The truth is that if push did come to shove he would have got the better of me but I think when Susan went to phone the police it scared him off."

Susan added: "It was very frightening. We go to the leisure centre all the time and never thought in a million years that this would happen.

"The young man should feel ashamed of himself for scaring us like that. We want this person to be caught before he is allowed to do it to anybody else."

The couple who are strictly teetotal won the bottle after spending a night watching a performance by St Mary's Players.

They always enter the raffle and if they win a prize they donate it to the Royal Court Theatre, Rochdale Road, Bacup.

Roy added: "Even though we don't drink we still didn't want the thug to have it. The next day we took it round to the theatre and told them all about what had happened.

He went on: "It comes to something when you can't even go out without something like this happening. Even though we were both very shaken after the incident we are not going to let it stop us getting on with our lives."

Simon Parker, Royal Court Theatre chairman said: "I would like to thank them for their bravery in not giving up a much cherished bottle of whisky.

"They are always donating things, just a couple of months ago they gave us a keyboard. I just hope this bad experience won't stop them getting out and enjoying themselves."

A police spokesman said: "Special police officers who were on duty at the time of the incident gave chase to the offender who got away. We would urge anybody who may know this person or who saw anything that night to contact us."

If you have information about the incident, at 10.10pm on Friday, March 28, should contact police on 01282 425001 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.