UK’s unluckiest man misses lottery win after being knocked over – and then accidentally torches his flat with chip pan while drowning sorrows

PENSIONER Barrie Enderby has staked a strong claim to be the UK’s unluckiest man after he was knocked off his bike, causing him to miss out on a lotto win of £10,000.

And the 78-year-old’s run of bad luck continued when a blaze ripped through his kitchen after he drowned his sorrows that night and accidentally left his chip pan on.

The former Lincolnshire county footballer and cricketer revealed his misfortune started when he was knocked off his bike when a motorist pulled out in front of him on Sunday.

His leg was badly injured – meaning he couldn’t pedal fast enough to get to the bookies later that day.

He : “When I realised that I hadn’t put on my lottery numbers I went as fast as I could to the bookies.

“But my leg is still sore and I could only go slowly and missed the 8pm deadline by 15 minutes.”

It was later that he found out his usual numbers 8, 14, 16 and 21, inspired by his daughter’s birthdays, as well as his two old house numbers would have scored him a jackpot of £10,000.

He said despite not being much of a drinker, he decided he needed to go out for a drink after finding out about his missed fortune.

Barrie added: “So when I got back home and felt hungry, I put on some chips and steak. But I fell asleep. The next thing I knew the smoke alarm had gone off.

“I threw water on the cooker but that was the worst thing I could have done.”

The blaze grew even larger, stripping roof tiles and melting an extractor fan.

Thanks to neighbours who called 999, fire fighters arrived soon after and managed to extinguish the kitchen blaze.

Barrie is now being helped by family and his local community.

A Humberside Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “We are still getting fires caused by unattended cooking. There are other alternatives to chip pans with hot oil. There are deep fat fryers and oven chips.”

He added: “Putting water on a pan of burning oil is not the right thing to do.

“Sadly this is an example of hot oil in chip pans which can be dangerous. It is a hard lesson and we see it time and time again. There are still many residents using chip pans sadly. The occupier in this case was uninjured which is excellent but it could have caused serious injury or worse.”