ST PETER S Church, King s Ripton, has done rather well out of having the £300 proceeds of its biennial flower festival stolen in a distraction theft in July. The money would have been used to repair the church floor to create a community space lacking in

ST PETER'S Church, King's Ripton, has done rather well out of having the £300 proceeds of its biennial flower festival stolen in a distraction theft in July.

The money would have been used to repair the church floor to create a community space lacking in the tiny village - population 170.

The church community was distraught at losing the proceeds of its major fund-raising event, but parishioner Katie Tanner (left) organised a Pimms and pâté evening to make good the loss - with her employers, Barclays Bank, promising to match the proceeds pound for pound.

Last week, Katie handed over a cheque for £1,289 - four times as much as the church would have had without the theft - to parish treasurer Mary Collett (second from right) and the Rector, the Reverend Brian Atling. Also pictured (second left) is churchwarden Sylvia Tanner.

It is pure coincidence that in a previous life Mr Atling, who is also Rector of Abbots Ripton and Houghton with Wyton, was a main board director of Barclays Bank.

The proceeds of the festival are believed to have been taken by two young men while a steward in the church was distracted.

* The Rev Atling was this week appointed as Huntingdon's new rural dean. He succeeds the Rev Canon Dr Maggie Guite, who has left the deanery. She was formerly Vicar of Fenstanton and Hilton and has now moved to a new parish at Newnham, Cambridge.