Butcher's bizarre festive raffle win (From Bucks Free Press)

Butcher's bizarre festive raffle win

3:10pm Sunday 25th December 2011 in News By James Nadal

A TURKEY was at the centre of a hilarious fluke as a butcher defied odds of 2,700 to 1 to win back the Christmas bird he had sold to organisers of a raffle.

Bernie Longhurst thought he must have been on the end of a Yuletide prank when he went to Marlow Bottom's Barn Club prize draw last week only to discover that he was the winner of the white meat treat.

Hundreds of people were vying to gobble up the traditional Christmas creature which he had sold only days earlier.

But unbelievably, out of the 2,700 tickets entered, it was his number that came up.

And it was for the one prize he really did not need.

“I was after the wine, the beer, or anything really, even the make up set would've have been alright,” he joked, still laughing at the thought.

“Last year at the club I won a pampering set, with all the smellies for a lady, I was really enamoured with that one as well.”

The surprise win proved to be much funnier than the typical festive jokes found in a cracker for Barn Club members.

“It was a funny one I must admit, everyone was laughing their heads off,” said Bernie, who runs Longhurst's in Brucewood Parade, Marlow Bottom.

He thought at first it must have been a wind up.

“If there was one thing I didn't want to see any more of this side or next side of Christmas, it was that,” he told the MFP.

“I've got a few more coming in still to the shop too.”

He had hoped for an unlikely win that weekend when he entered the Saturday night National Lottery, but ruefully his numbers were up in the wrong draw.

To cap off the story, was a note that came with the £50 bird.

“I got a piece of paper saying go and collect your turkey from Longhurst's,” he explained.

He is still yet to decide what to do with the bird and is weighing up whether his ability to beat the odds will extend to next weekend's lottery draw.

As for next year's raffle, after this unlikely outcome, he's not counting his turkeys yet.