We also find it worrying when we see a man and a woman fighting - no one

We also find it worrying when we see a man and a woman fighting - no one likes to intervene in domestic disputes - but the main reason everyone gives is safety fears. "It's quite proper for people to think of their own safety," says Eric Shegog, the director of communications for the Church of England. "They have other responsibilities, or maybe they are family people. So you've got to weigh up the risks, and the likelihood that you would be able to influence the situation."But the Good Samaritan had such considerations too, and research shows that certain people do end up intervening in some way - perhaps only by calling for help - regardless of fears of traffic flow or embarrassment. They do so because they believe it is the right thing to do; they tend to have been brought up in families that gave them a strong sense of personal responsibility. They were taught that the buck does not stop with their neighbours or the next car, but with themselves."There has been a lot of research into people who did extraordinary things, such as helping Jews during the Holocaust," says Dr Haste. "What is striking about this is that people say: `I did not have a choice I'm not unusual.

I'm not very brave.' That's what they feel."Kris Black does not think she is brave, either, but she does intervene - not always with the best of results. The other night she was in a minicab when she saw a young woman being pushed to the pavement by a man The minicab stopped and they ran over to help. "The woman was pregnant and, when she came to, it was clear she had been drinking," says Ms Black. "Then she attacked the cab driver."Would you have intervened, or have waited for your conscience to be tickled? Police say they have finally had a good response to their appeal in Chislehurst, but no arrests have been made Who knows, it may end up being re-enacted in Crimewatch. The BBC says that some 1,500 people ring in after every programme.

Perhaps the Good Samaritan these days is alive and well, and just waiting for Crimewatch to jog his memory.. The ambitious wannabes of English rugby may not have squeezed all they wanted from the Rugby Football Union during the last few months of committee room conflict, but they won a hugely significant battle yesterday when the governing body agreed to change tack once again on the vexed issue of Courage League promotion. After intense lobbying from cash-driven Second Division clubs, Newcastle, Richmond and Bedford were all involved, RFU officials finally agreed to promote two sides into the First Division. The move means four teams must now make the drop into the Second Division to allow a 10-club top flight next season. Originally, the RFU had insisted on a single promotion place embellished by a play-off between the Second Division runners-up and the club finishing ninth in the First Division. But yesterday Tony Hallett, the RFU Secretary who has spent most of the year arguing the toss with big-money power-brokers like Sir John Hall of Newcastle, pointed to fixture congestion at the end of the season as the main reason for abandoning the play-off idea.