THE luck of the Irish blessed a Great Harwood pub after couple Steve Smith and Winifred Murray found shamrocks at the bottom of their garden.

Winifred, 42, and Steve, 41, had an oak tree cut down last week and when they began cutting it up into logs, they found a perfect shape of a shamrock running through the central rings of the oak.

Feeling superstitious, they jokingly kissed the Irish emblem to bring them luck on Saturday.

Steve said: "We didn't think anything of it at the time, we were just messing about."

But the laughter turned to gasps of astonishment the next day when Winifred won a £1,000 cheque in a lottery at the United Social Club, Great Harwood.

Steve, of the Weavers Arms, said: "I was surprised when I found a shamrock shape instead of the rings, but I couldn't believe it when Winifred won the money."

Winifred added: "I feel really lucky now, like I should be buying lottery tickets all the time in case I win something else. I've never won anything in my life before."

Steve has had a section of the oak cut out and he plans to varnish it and mount it on the wall of the pub so other people needing luck can give it a peck.

He's hoping it will make the pub especially popular on St Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, when he's celebrating by giving away pints of Guinness in a special "buy one, get one free" promotion.

Ron Freethy, nature expert, said it wasn't unusual to find marks running through the centre of old, deciduous trees such as oaks. He said: "As the tree grows, new rings grow around the outside of the tree. The new wood puts pressure on the oldest wood in the centre, called the heartwood.

"The pressure of the sapwood on the outside, which carries water, squeezes the water out of the centre, which makes it a different colour. Sometimes it does make unusual shapes." Sometimes, as the tree grows older, the dead heartwood can rot away while the living outside of the tree carries on growing. This creates a hollow tree which may survive many years more.

Shamrocks may have been lucky for Steve and Winifred, but what else can bring you good fortune?

Stones with holes running through them have long been thought to bring good luck because they keep away the evil eye.

Spotted magpies this morning? If you saw two together they will bring you luck -- fortunately they usually live in pairs.

Finding a pin is meant to be lucky, probably because they were once expensive items and finding one would be as fortunate as finding a tenner today.

Weddings are full of superstitions, and a bride should look out for a tiny spider in the folds of her wedding dress -- it means she will never be poor.

Getting six numbers on the lottery is generally considered to be extremely lucky! And with good reason -- the odds against it are more than 40million to one.