LADY Luck shone for the Citizen's Grand National competition winners at the weekend. Amid the chaos at Aintree following the IRA bomb scare, our winning readers luckily escaped being caught up in the confusion which saw hundreds of racegoers stranded overnight. And, although the big race was postponed, our winners enjoyed an 'eventful' day out.

"We paid £10 to park up someone's drive close to the racecourse. It was the best £10 we've ever spent," said Mr Robert Bland of Morecambe.

"We got inside the ground behind the stand and made our way to the centre of the course.

They announced that there was a bomb alert and we were told to make our way towards the gate. For a while it was quite scary as there were a lot of people trying to get through a narrow gap. It was a bottleneck but luckily everyone was good humoured and nobody panicked. If they had, it could have been another Hillsborough."

He added: "We were saying on the way down that the IRA might try something but we thought that with so many Irish people there, they would have been stupid to do anything."

Mr Alexander Haggan of Lancaster, who comes from Belfast, said he was used to bomb scares.

"It was awful when the announcement came over the Tannoy. The IRA were just being destructive and I think the race should have gone ahead anyway. I come from Belfast so I'm used to to it.

I was at Aintree on Thursday and Friday and did well getting the winners in the Champions' Hurdle and the Gold Cup. I watched the National at home on television on Monday and the horse I backed came in fifth."

Mrs Linda Pickles drove down to Liverpool with her husband and parked their car at a car wash.

"We were having a great day and had a winner on the first race," she said. "It got a bit frightening when we were ushered off the course through narrow gates. It was a bit of a crush and we were left hanging about in the streets outside for more than an hour. Despite all the chaos it's not stopped me wanting to go again."

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