Simon Harvey brought us his tale of being struck by lightning as he pursued a runaway donkey while covering a summer fete for the Henley Standard. Click here…

Chris Fidler, news editor of the Harborough and Lutterworth Mail, followed up with a story of football violence. Click here…

Today we turn the tables on Patrick Astill, now of HoldTheFrontPage, in our series of stories about journalists making the headlines.

It wasn’t the most original headline in the world, but “Newshound bitten by dog” certainly summed it up as a young Patrick – then working for the Lincolnshire Echo – had a close encounter with a landlord’s dogs outside a city pub.

A cutting, from the Echo’s archives, of the subsequent court proceedings reads as follows:

“Echo reporter Mr Astill was walking through a passageway near the pub, on his way back to the nearby newspaper’s offices at about 4pm.

“Mr Astill told the court that he noticed the dogs, a German Shepherd and a cross Alsatian, sniffing about.

“‘As I got halfway they came over and started barking and snapping at me.

“‘One of them then bit my leg. I was up against a car and I shouted for help three times, but no-one came,’ he said.

“Before Mr Astill was taken to hospital by a colleague, an Echo photographer took pictures of his injuries.”

The landlord was ordered to keep the animals under control.

Patrick says: “It’s the only time I’ve shouted for help in my life.”

Sources close to HoldTheFrontPage tell us that Patrick’s legs did feature in the regional press again a few years later, when he had a tattoo done – presumably to ward off cross Alsatians, or dogs in any other moods.

Now tell us YOUR story of when the tables were turned and YOU made the headlines in your newspaper. Ring the HoldTheFrontPage newsdesk on
01332 291111 x6022, or e-mail us now

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