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Forget partying with cheerleaders, says £250k winner... I'm going home to mum
Terry Kirby and Benedict Moore-Bridger18.11.09
So, you're a young rugby fan and rookie player who has just won £250,000 in a half-time kicking competition. You are surrounded by celebrating cheerleaders you have promised to take to dinner...
Most single twenty-somethings would probably opt for a big night on the tiles, a well-earned hangover and an excellent excuse to stay off work today. But not Stuart Tinner.
The 24-year-old, who won the money last night in the kicking contest during the match between Saracens and world champions South Africa at Wembley, opted for a quick meeting with the players before returning home for a good night's sleep at the house he lives in with his parents, before heading back to work at a jobcentre today.
Mr Tinner was the only contestant to hit the crossbar of the rugby posts from 30 metres, a kick all the more remarkable because he took off his shoes to do it in his socks. He said afterwards: "This is the second best day of my life - the best day was when I lost my virginity."
He added that he planned to buy a flat and a car with the cash, as well as see England play the All Blacks on Saturday. His mother Caroline, speaking at their home in Welwyn Garden City, said today: "He rang home soon afterwards. We were very pleased for him. Then he went to the dressing room and met the players and then came home."
She added her son was "very level-headed", but it is not clear whether he will still fulfil his promise to the cheerleaders, made to the Wembley crowd when he was interviewed as one of three spectators selected to take part.
His mother said she was delighted by his good fortune but it was too early to say whether he would move out: "He is going to be fairly sensible. I don't think he will be deciding in a hurry."
Mr Tinner, who also lives with his father Tom, only recently began playing for Welwyn's fifth team.
Martin Gadd, manager of the team, said Mr Tinner had joined only two months ago and had played in about six or seven games as a forward.
"The irony is that Stuart is no kicker - forwards don't kick," he said. "It was one hell of a fluke. He is just getting started. I don't think he had played before that at all.''
He added: ''I don't think even Jonny Wilkinson could do what he did, whether Stuart could repeat it or not, I'm not sure. You never know - we might have found the new Wilkinson. It's always possible."
