Wolverhampton cricketers hailed heroes for saving drowning man
Four Wolverhampton cricketers have been hailed as heroes after they saved a man from drowning.
Alex Haynes, Tom Nutting, Lee Homer and Jack Cooper from Penn Cricket Club were in Bristol for a match when they saw the man trip over and plummet 20ft into the River Avon.
They used a rubber ring to rescue the man, who was in his 20s and had fallen into the water after one too many drinks.
The cricketers have since been thanked by Avon and Somerset Constabulary, with an inspector calling them up and branding their brave actions 'heroic'.
Alex 21, of Mount Road, Penn; Jack, 23, from Pool Hall Road, Castlecroft; and Tom, 26, and Lee 33, both from Birchwood Road, Penn, had just finished a match against Wembdon when the drama unfolded near the Mud Dock Cafe in the early hours of August 6.
Mr Haynes said he and his pals saw a man 'who seemed a bit worse for the drink'.
"The next thing we knew he just veered to the edge of the dock and fell into the water," he said. "We all ran over and at first we didn't know what to do. The man was floundering in the water and we could see he was struggling to stay up.
"We spotted the emergency rubber ring which had a rope attached, but when we tried to throw it to him it wasn't landing in the right place.
"While Tom dialled 999 I jumped down to the next level on the dockside and tied the rope to one of the boats moored there and I tried to throw the ring to the man again.
"He put it over his head and we all pulled him in. He looked in a bad way and was very confused about what was happening."
Police and paramedics arrived on the scene and the lads went back to their hostel, where Mr Nutting received the telephone call from a police duty inspector.
"He said thank you for saving the man's life," added Mr Haynes. "To be honest it was a big shock to us. We've never done anything like that before. We're just glad he's OK"
Niamh Byrne, spokeswoman for Avon and Somerset Constabulary, said: "We received a call at 2.25am saying that a man had gone into the water and that members of the public had helped him out.
"One of them was called and thanked personally by a senior officer."
