Triple Rollover Jackpot claimed
Saturday 14 October saw only the second triple rollover in the
National Lottery’s 11-year history, with a jackpot that reached
£18,711,206 from the numbers 8,15,24,31,37 and 45. There were
only two winning tickets so speculation was rife as to whom the
winners were.
First to go public was Kevin Jones, who is syndicate leader for
the ‘First Class Postal Syndicate’ based at Royal Mail’s
Manchester office. The syndicate plays 32 lines, using a regular
selection of numbers that were first picked when the lottery was
launched, so checking the tickets can take some time. But on Sunday
Kevin was amazed to find that with the first ticket he’d ticked
off all six numbers. He then checked the numbers in the paper, on
Teletext, back to the paper until he’d convinced himself that
they really had won. The syndicate has 14 members and Kevin managed
to contact some over the weekend, but it was Monday morning at work
when everyone heard the good news. Kevin says that telling 13 workmates
you’ve won over £9m is a fantastic experience, and the
picture of their faces will live with him forever. As you can imagine,
your colleagues would be smiling if you told them they were nearly
£700,000 better off as a result of being in a syndicate. The
ticket was bought at NISA, New Moston and this is the second time
a syndicate of Postal Workers has netted the jackpot, the last was
a £3.5m win by 10 workers from Salisbury, in 2001.
And as the Postal Syndicate were celebrating their win, a retired
couple in Bilston, West Midlands broke their silence to declare
that they held the other £9.3m ticket. Irene and Ronald Jones
are a self-confessed superstitious couple, so when their lounge
mirror fell off the wall and smashed in to tiny pieces on Friday
13th, they were convinced they were in for troubled times. Still,
as it was a rollover, Irene still bought her usual ticket at Woolworths
on Church Street in Bilston, using numbers she’s always played.
The couple were watching TV when they decided to check their numbers
and as Ronald switched to Teletext they realised the winning lottery
numbers looked familiar. They checked, checked again, called their
daughter and checked again! However the suspense was too much and
on Sunday morning after a call to Camelot their hopes were confirmed.
Yes they’d won £9.3m and yes they would be able to buy
the bungalow they’d always dreamed of having.
19 October 2006
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