Mining for Gold

Two ex-miner friends have won a jackpot of £11,544,846. The huge amount resulted from a double rollover and was won on Wednesday 26 July. Wales is proving to be a lucky place to be if you want to win the lottery with five jackpot winners prior to this big win, in 2006 already.

The winners John Ackerman and John Stinchcombe have regularly played the Saturday Lotto game for many years but it was Pearl Ackerman who convinced her husband that with a double rollover it was worth them buying some tickets for a Wednesday game. They used their regular selection of numbers, which they circle randomly over three lines, and the lucky numbers were 7,17,27,30,33,39. Initially John Ackerman had the ticket and thinking he’d won £50 he went to his local Woolworth’s where he’d bought the ticket, to claim his win. The assistant said they couldn’t pay him as the prize was too big, and it was then that he realised they’d won the jackpot.

Both Johns live near each other in Crumlin in Wales and as the reality of the win has not yet sunk in, they plan to stay in their current homes, even stay doing their current jobs. But maybe their families including children and grandchildren will convince them of a few things they could spend their money on.

- 7/8/06