They say that money doesn't grow on trees, but it definitely blooms in pubs - at least it does in Newhaven's Jolly Boatman. That's because this Sussex watering hole was recently home to a winning lottery syndicate of six players, who snagged a cool £1 million for themselves in the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw earlier this month.
While the members of this good-natured syndicate usually don’t need much of a reason to celebrate life, winning a million on the lottery was by far the best excuse for opening a bottle of champagne. Made up of pub landlady, Charlotte Maynard, 33, her mother, Mary Maynard, 72, and regulars Michael Read, 49, Michael Fowler, 55, Michael Skinner, 48, and Maureen (Mo) Daly, the syndicate have been toasting their lucky win of £166,000 each ever since the news broke on 9 January of this year.
It was member Michael Reed (better known as Fudge) who first heard news of the amazing win, having made time to watch the draw before popping into his local for a pint. Of course once he realised the group's good fortune, he did more than just pop in - he called ahead to give landlady Charlotte the good news, then raced over to celebrate in person.
As one would expect, Charlotte was immediately overcome with excitement, and ran upstairs to share the good news with her parents. Her ecstatic screams at first alarmed her mother Mary, also a member of the syndicate. “I thought something awful had happened when Charlotte first appeared", she said, "but when she shared the news, my panic quickly turned to joy. I turned to my husband of 37 years, Francis, and said, ‘come on, we’d better get glammed up, there’s champagne to be drunk!’ and headed down to the bar.”
Charlotte remembers: “With the champagne corks already popping I called Michael, but his wife said he was in bed with flu and couldn’t come to the phone. I said ‘I think he might want to get up for this news’.
“Amazing what a EuroMillions win can do - he made a rapid recovery and was celebrating in the pub half an hour later. The final Michael of the trio, Irish Mike, was delighted with the news too and also headed over. However tracking down Mo proved harder as she was on holiday in Mexico. We finally managed to get a message to her via Facebook and promised that her champagne was still on ice.”
The Jolly Boatman's syndicate may still be giddy with surprise at their million-pound win, but at GiantLottos.com, it's no shock to us. Over the years we've seen more and more syndicates crack open bottles of champagne as they celebrate their wins - and in fact, one in every four lottery jackpots is won by a syndicate. Spread the cost, multiply your chances, share in the winning excitement with your friends - there's no downside!
If you've been considering starting your own lottery syndicate, there's no time like the present! Just set yours up with GiantLottos.com today, buy your lottery tickets online, and make sure the champagne is chilled and ready to celebrate your first fantastic jackpot win!