NEIGHBOURS rallied round to save a Christmas party at the Queenstown Working Men's Club which was almost cancelled when two new cookers broke down.

The group of generous neighbours and fellow club members rallied round to cook food themselves, so none of the 75 guests at the Christmas buffet missed out.

Lynne Scott, stewardess at the club in Dudmore Road, said: "I was in tears, I was sobbing because it looked like everything would be ruined.

"Everyone was so concerned they rallied around and the party went fine."

Mrs Scott, 42 and husband Willy, 52, arranged the Christmas bash for members weeks ago.

On Tuesday, they chose a brand new electric oven from the Currys store in Greenbridge.

The cooker was installed the following morning and Mrs Scott set about preparing the food ahead of Thursday's party.

She slid a tray of chicken drummers on the top shelf at 190C.

But when she checked them 35 minutes later they were nowhere near cooked. Mrs Scott turned the oven up full blast but an hour later the drummers were not cooked.

Then she called the electrician back. A thermometer test revealed that the oven was not heating up past 170C.

Mrs Scott called Currys and was relieved when the store offered to loan her a replacement until a new cooker arrived.

She had explained to the manager that she needed to cater for 75 pensioners.

But when the couple got it home they found it had exactly the same fault as the last.

"I just couldn't believe it," said Mrs Scott. "Most of the party food was frozen and there was no way the cooker was getting hot enough to cook it. I couldn't serve people undercooked food."

Instead, with hours to spare, Mrs Scott took a taxi to her mum's house in Eldene and cooked most of the food there.

She had to call another taxi to take her back to the club with the food.

Members also arrived carrying plates of sausage rolls and mince pies.

Yesterday Mrs Scott took the Beko cooker back to Currys for a full refund.

Now owners of the Flying Fish Chip Shop in Drove Road have loaned Mrs Scott one of their cookers until after Christmas.

Stuart Cook, deputy store manger at Currys, said he had made every effort to help Mrs Scott.

He said: "What are the chances of two cookers having the same fault? Pretty remote. It was a very unfortunate situation"

The £269.99 cooker has been temporarily withdrawn from sale at the Swindon branch while the fault is investigated.