vRSgone

Thanks for all respondents to my problem. I would only ever use a jack in an emergency situation, such as occurred last Thursday night. I didn't really have an alternative, bearing in mind the location on a dark unlit B road, & no mobile signal. I am still tempted by the bottle jack  mentioned by Dan. It's got to be a big improvement on the OEM.
 
It is only my second jacking incident in over 50 years of motoring history. The first concerned a 1962 Series 1 E type. I suffered a front tyre blow out at well over a ton on M1 near Leeds (no 70mph limit then). Again I was not familiar with the jacking arrangements, and proceeded to jack it up using the supplied ratchet jack, & what I thought was the jacking point. After ratcheting away for ages & not seeing the front wheel lift up, I realised (too late) something was wrong. The whole sill, & the strut incorporating the jacking point had been filled. Rotten as an old pair of knickers it was, & it pushed the sill up into the drivers door. As a consequence I couldn't open the drivers door. It was like that for the next three months, & I had to get in by vaulting over the door. It was a roadster & I was young & agile then. Sadly the car was repossessed by the finance company, after I stopped paying for it, after a row with the garage I bought it off (I was young & stupid then)
 
Apart from being a bird puller, it was a  horribly unreliable car, with many issues during my brief ownership. And it wasn't as fast as the Fabia vRS, & I only got about 15 miles to the gallon. But petrol was only about 5 bob a gallon as I recall. Happy days.