Wayward Morris dancers and £2,800 boiled egg: odd insurance claims

Every year millions of people live quiet and uneventful lives - where the only time they think about their home insurance is when they shop around for cheaper cover, and then settle down for a nice cup of tea. Meanwhile, down the more bizarre end of the spectrum, other Brits are up to all sorts - and end up making particularly unusualhome insurance claims as a result.

We reveal the ten strangest.

10. Morris mayhem
A man from Kingston-upon-Thames put in a claim for £385 worth of damage to his glasses. He explained that the damage was sustained during an over-enthusiastic bout of Morris dancing.

9. Driven crazy
A Bristol man wanted to improve his home, so had some chippings delivered. Unfortunately, when the delivery lorry backed onto the drive in order to drop the chippings off; it sank into it entirely - racking up £8,000 worth of damage.

8. Expensive egg
A woman in Liverpool forgot all about her boiled egg, and wandered off. When the egg finally gave in and exploded, it managed to cause an impressive £2,800 of damage.

7. Runaway horse
In Birmingham, in the kind of incident you'd expect to read about in Victorian times, a horse and cart left the road and ploughed through fences and gardens - racking up hundreds of pounds in claims.

6. Gate escape
You might have thought that installing a sturdy wrought iron gate would help protect your property from burglars. Unfortunately this wasn't the case for a policyholder in Nottingham who had his £760 gate stolen.

5. Crossbow calamity
In an incident that's fortunately not quite as dangerous as it initially sounds, a Walsall policyholder claimed for £460 worth of damage to their TV when a wall mounted crossbow fell off the wall.

4. Indoor skiing mistake
A Falkirk policyholder decided to invest in an indoor ski machine. Unfortunately, he didn't leave enough space when he set it up in the living room - and in the process of setting it up he managed to crack his TV screen - causing £600 of damage.

3. Child vs sofa
A Leicester grandparent learned an important lesson about the perils of leaving a grandson and a marker pen alone in the same room. The boy decided to use the sofa as his canvas - causing £1,200 of damage.

2. Cold teeth?
One Stoke-on-Trent man might have thought his log burning stove was a great way to save money. However, in a bizarre and unexpected twist, his dentures ended up with the logs, and were thrown into the fire - leading to a claim for £150.

1. Love is in the air
While large Valentine's cards are one way of showing love for that special someone, they are also very good at catching a breeze from an open window that can then knock over your beloved's Royal Dalton figurine worth £250.

The list was put together by Rias, who specialise in insurance for the over 50s. Their target market would seem to be the more genteel end of the spectrum, but their list reveals that this isn't necessary so.

Mark Hanson, their director of marketing, added that the list is a useful reminder of how unpredictable life can be, and how important it is to have robust home insurance in place.