A lucky mistake saw a former weekly deputy editor win thousands of pounds on the Grand National.

Ex-Harborough Mail journalist Alex Blackwell thought he’d put a total of £20 on winning horse One For Arthur before Saturday’s race at Aintree when placing bets online.

It was only after the finishing post was passed that he realised he’d accidentally added an extra nought to his stake – bagging himself £2,200 in the process.

Alex’s mistake meant that he had placed £100 on the Bet365 website for the horse to win the race outright at 16 to one, while he also put a further £100 on an each way bet – which meant a quarter of those odds would be paid should the horse finish in the top four.

The format of the website meant Alex only needed to click a separate box on the ‘winner’ bet in order to also place an each way wager.

He told the Leicester Mercury: “When I reviewed it, I saw I had put £200 on. I felt very lucky. I ended up winning £2,200.

“It was pretty fortunate because I didn’t mean to put that much on. It’s lucky it came in.”

Alex, now a freelance, said he would never purposefully put on a £200 bet, an amount he described as “crazy”.

The only other time he previously won money on the National was when he put £1 on winning 100 to one shot Mon Mome in 2009.

He added: “I sort of feel the bookies have taken enough money off me over the years.

“This has balanced the scales a bit. I’ve been lucky now, but I’ve been fairly unlucky in the past.”

Alex is now planning to put his winnings towards a new car.