Oh, to be in Hull, when March was here

Two jackpot prizes were won in Hull in March. On 3 March £772,906 was won by a Public House Syndicate (five tickets shared £3,864,530) and on 24 March £1,128,663 was won by a Fish Processing syndicate (four tickets shared £4,514,652).

The 16-strong syndicate from the Cumbo Public House did not they were winners for nearly a month as pub landlord and syndicate organiser Stephen Gore had not checked the ticket. It was only when he saw an article in the local press about an unclaimed Jackpot ticket that he decided to check. Worrying that he might be mistaken when he realised their ticket was a winner, he went with one other syndicate member to collect their prize so that he could be certain the money was theirs. The syndicate use a regular set of numbers that were originally picked at random, 1,5,11,19,28,36. Their ticket was bought at Jackpot Wines, recently voted Independent National Lottery Retailer of the Year. Now the group are all planning how to spend their windfall, from new cars, holidays, DIY, debt clearing, and of course a round of celebratory drinks.

And just a few weeks later, another Hull based syndicate netted an even bigger win of £1,128,663 with the numbers 9,14,26,28,30,45 from a ticket bought at Eida’s News, Hull. And it was a similar story of the syndicate leader not realising he had a winning ticket, as he was away on holiday when the draw was made, and did not check the ticket till he was back. He checked the numbers online, but was so tired from his journey that he was worried he’d made a mistake, so he only told one other member and then waited until the cheque was banked before telling the others. Now a spending spree including new cars, treats for family and paying off mortgages are likely.

- 18/4/07