The unexpected has often happened to Mike Warren-Madden over the years.

He invented a bird feeding table that fitted on his head and was attacked by a squirrel when he wore it whilst out for a walk in the wood and was knocked to the ground. He should have been wearing his bubble-wrap suit.

That was another creation from the Honley man with an outsize sense of fun and a talent for lateral thinking. A suit made from bubble-wrap was perfect for someone with a poor sense of balance or had a tendency to fall over when he left the pub.

He made a bid to have the Royal Yacht Brittania put on the River Holme as a tourist attraction and suggested Buckingham Palace would be perfect for time share apartments to make a bit of extra spending money for the Queen.

He’s a champion tripe eater and snorer who has appeared on Comic Relief in Britain and comedy programmes in Germany where they have a strange sense of humour.

And who can ever forget when he turned his garden at Crackpot Cottage into a sanctuary for garden gnomes?

Anyway, the unexpected happened again this week.

“Do you remember when I wrote off to the Space Centre at Cape Canaveral?”

And yes, he did. He asked for a piece of moon rock for a charity auction and they sent him an application form to become an astronaut. I’m surprised he didn’t make the programme and go on to pick his rocks from the moon.

“Well, blow me down,” he says, “I was unlocking the door the other night when I heard a faint thud in the garden. Looking round, I didn’t see anything, so I took me’sen to bed.

“The next morning I was tucking into my porridge when I looked out of the French windows to see Fatty, our cat, sniffing at something in the lawn.

“I went out to take a peep and found it was a lump of rock embedded in the garden. It’s rock-like with smaller stones melted into it. I think it fell out of the sky and just missed my napper, so I have ended up with my space rock after all. Unless a neighbour chucked it at me to try and tell me something.

“I’d love some expert to have to look.”

Does Mike finally have his piece of moon rock?