IF anything was destined to add a bit of spice to the menu at Ronato's restaurant in Culcheth it was the hot gossip that the tasty Spice Girls were in town! For after a group of flamboyantly dressed girls and escorts turned up at the restaurant in Common Lane in a limousine and then ordered champagne and expensive food, it didn't take long for a crowd to gather thinking the latest pop darlings had dropped in.

Alas, the girls were not the real thing, but a group of friends who had been to the races and were enjoying themselves after a winning streak.

Dawn Franklin, 29, who is engaged to Renato's son Stefan, commented: "This place suddenly started to buzz and people started paying a lot of attention to this group of good looking girls and some good looking lads who were with them, and it didn't take long for the rumour to spread that the Spice Girls were in the restaurant.

"They were very flamboyantly dressed and turned up in a limousine, so that added to the rumours. I was chatting to them, and they were a bit drunk, but well mannered and fun. It seems they had been to the races all afternoon and had won a few hundred pounds between them and decided to celebrate. It's a great pity it wasn't the real Spice Girls though, but Stefano was still ogling them though, and I was looking at the fellas with them! No wonder we have been engaged for six years!"

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