I WOULD love to thank the good Samaritans who must have been puzzled to find my husband Gerald lying on top of a wall of our Bowling Club in Devonshire Road after that very bad deluge and fierce wind that swept through Salisbury in the early hours of June 6.

Gerald went to check the green, leaving the back door of the clubhouse open, but the wind slammed it shut, locking him all alone in the rinks, surrounded by high walls, no phone, no key and no-one to hear him.

He dragged a chair to the wall nearest the street.

This wall has a big sturdy double gate (also locked) and managed to clamber up somehow and lay across the top, where he found he had no energy left. He began to feel faint as he found one of his feet had become wedged into the side of the gate and he couldn’t move it.

No one came by in Devonshire Road except passing cars for at least 20 minutes, until a woman came along and nervously peered up to ask him if he was alright.

“No, I’m not! I’m stuck!” came the sorrowful reply, and he gave her our address – just round the corner – and she went to ring our bell. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten to switch the power back on from the night before – sometimes our bell bursts into music whenever someone presses our neighbour’s bell too. In the back kitchen, anyone at the front goes unheard, so I was still oblivious to all the drama. I don’t know what happened to this obliging lady, she must have just given up, and our neighbours were out.

A young girl came up to Gerald with a cell-phone and rang the Fire Brigade – how sensible – and a young man emerged from a house with his stepladder, which the speedy young men of the Fire Brigade were quick to make use of. Gerald was eventually returned to Terra firma with no damage except to his dignity, thanks to all his anonymous helpers, to which I send my heartfelt good wishes, as Gerald could not have held out much longer up there without having to let go, what with his replacement hip and being 88 in August among other things.

When he finally arrived back safe at home I could hardly believe his long saga. In 55 years of marriage I have never been so surprised as when he said “I’ve just been rescued by the Fire Brigade!”

It was rather like a mixture of Dad’s Army and Last of the Summer Wine, and pretty soon we were both smiling again.

Many blessings are due to Gerald’s rescuers, you know who you are, and Spiderman sends his thanks too.

Mrs Andrea J Lailey, Salisbury