FOUR pool players from Kent cheated death by seconds when their car spun off a road, flipped into a ditch and burst into flames.

The injured men were pulled from the burning wreckage and say that they owe their lives to the heroic actions of a passing pensioner who helped them out.

The group, members of the Cross Keys and Jolly Sailor pub pool teams in Canterbury, were travelling home from a match when the accident happened.

Peter Martin, of Bristol Road, Canterbury, was driving friends Gary Mullan, 33, landlord of the Jolly Sailor, Haydn Prior, 30, and Bobby Rogers, 27.

Mr Martin said: "We were on the A14 just outside Ipswich on the inside lane doing 50mph. The speed limit was 60. I felt one of the tyres go. I must have hit the side of a wall, that's all I can think. It's never happened to me before.

"We skidded, I tried to control the car but that didn't work. We turned over two or three times and ended up upside down in a 5ft deep ditch."

The next thing the 48-year-old painter and decorator recalls is a man running towards the car, screaming that it was on fire.

Next to Mr Martin in the front passenger seat was Mr Rogers, of Woodside Avenue, Chartham, who is the UK Deaf Pool Champion. He suffered a broken collarbone and cracked ribs in the accident.

He said: "Because of my collarbone, I couldn't reach to undo my seat belt. Fortunately, someone got me out but I was in quite a bit of pain.

"Within seconds the car burst into flames and I just thought how lucky I was because I probably would have died in the fire."

Ground worker Mr Prior, of Ince Road, Sturry, was in the backseat. He was discharged on Monday having broken his right wrist in three places, his left collarbone and in a wheelchair because of damage to tendons in his leg.

He wasn't even meant to be on the trip in the first place. "I only stepped in at the last minute when someone else dropped out," he explained.

"I just remember the dashboard of the car was on fire when we were still in it. Gary, sitting next to me, thought I was dead."

Gary Mullan, landlord of the Jolly Sailor pub, needed an operation in hospital to his shoulder and 15 stitches to a wound on his ear.

The man hailed as a hero was Frank Pepper, 71, who was travelling from his home near Ipswich at noon on Sunday with wife Jenny to buy some flowers.

He said: "The car had caught fire and there were flames leaping around. We managed to get the driver and passenger out just in time really, they all had a very lucky escape."

But wife Mrs Pepper added: "My husband is being very modest, he was the one who actually got them out of the car. I thought they were all going to go up in flames."

The car, fully insured, was a write-off and all four passengers lost their pool cues, their luggage for the two-night trip and Mr Rogers lost his hearing aids.