Hungry hero: John Wood (Picture: Archant Cambs)

A pub landlord fought off four would-be muggers single-handedly in order to protect the fish and chips takeaway, including a pie, he had just bought.

John Wood, 37, hit back at his stunned assailants when they demanded he give up his wallet and phone in an alleyway in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, last week.

Mr Wood, who owns the Marshland Arms in nearby Marshland St James, needed 18 stitches however after being stabbed in the abdomen with a sharpened screwdriver.

He credited his martial arts training with helping him fend off the muggers, who police are still trying to apprehend.


‘I only did aikido for a couple of years but it all comes back to you very quickly when you need it most,’ the pub landlord said after the incident near Frank’s Fish and Chip Shop.



‘They all came at me at once. I kicked two of them in the leg. They fell to the floor and couldn’t get up. As I did that another clipped me in the face. I turned around and hit him and he fell,’ he recalled.

‘I turned around again and the other one came at me with what I thought was a knife. He just lunged and I felt a sharp twang in my side.

‘I grabbed his hands so he couldn’t bring it out and stab again. I pulled it out myself, disarmed him and then hit him. I think he was knocked out.

‘Then I just got in my car and left. I didn’t even drop the chips. I did it all one-handed.’

Mr Wood added: ‘My supper wasn’t even squashed when I got home.’

After driving to his fiancée Claire Upton’s house Mr Wood required treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, where he was told the screwdriver had missed his lung by just 1mm.

‘It was a crazy moment when he walked in,’ said Ms Upton.

‘His face was a bit red where he had been hit and so we were looking for a plaster.

‘Then we served the chips. John had lost his appetite but the pie he got is still in the fridge.’

She added: ‘We haven’t had the heart to throw it out seeing as he worked so hard for it.’

Cambridge police said: ‘We have received an allegation of an attempted robbery in Wisbech which we are looking into.

‘Anyone who believes they may have information about this is asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.’