Well done, Nobby!Follow

A poppy-wearing pensioner foiled a raid on a jewellers when he ripped a balaclava off a man armed with a sledgehammer.

The have-a-go-hero, aged around 80, left the robber so stunned at being unmasked that he and his accomplice dropped their weapons and fled empty-handed.

He was the only person to intervene as the raid unfolded in front of a crowd of over 50 shoppers and office workers on a busy London high street.

Eye-witnesses said that the man showed "amazing guts" risking his life as he tackled the raider.

The pensioner, named as William Grove, stepped in as the two attackers pounded the reinforced glass windows of the branch of jewellers Ernest Jones in Richmond, south-west London, in broad daylight.

He said: “As soon as this happened I think they were both so taken by surprise at what I did that they just ran off. I didn’t have time to be scared, it was all over in about two minutes.”

The hero of the hour then turned to the gathering crowd, smiled, ambled to the bus stop and stepped on board: his crime-fighting cameo on Thursday was over. Mr Grove, a former civil servant, said he had to rush off as he was late for a meeting and, as he had the only key, he did not want people to have to wait in the cold.

Can't have been Nobby, the guy in the article is too young and there are no mentions of an Eric Clapton lookalike at all.

Mr Grove, a former civil servant, said he had to rush off as he was late for a meeting and, as he had the only key, he did not want people to have to wait in the cold.