Rugby, Australian Football: Stuart Fielden escapes tsunami disaster

Great Britain forward Stuart Fielden survived the Asian tsunami disaster whilst holidaying on the Thai island of Phuket last week. Bradford star Fielden and his friend, Keighley Cougars player Danny Ekis, were staying in a hotel just 800 metres from the devastated sea front when the disaster struck early on Boxing Day.

The pair, who have now returned home, had originally hoped to stay in sea-front hotel but had to settle for one further back.

Fielden said: "On the morning of the tsunami my bed started shaking and I looked up at Danny, who was across the room to see if it was him messing about.

"I never even dreamed it was an earthquake. It was only later when Danny had gone down for breakfast that he shouted me to come and have a look.

"In reception there was a family who were all bashed up, bleeding and whose skin had been ripped off.

"We were lucky our hotel was about five minutes from the beach and wasn't flooded. That was just a piece of luck. We were pretty lucky and just so thankful we got away unscathed."

Fielden revealed he had been swimming and diving around the island of Phi Phi on Christmas Day and planned to return the following morning. Phi Phi was badly hit by the tsunami with most of the island's holiday resort destroyed.

He added: "We were lucky to be on the beach when we were, the previous day, and it struck when we weren't there.

"It was a beautiful place and we had decided to return on Boxing Day, but decided to have a lie-in instead.

"If we had gone we would have been landing on the island just about the time the wave struck."

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