Lotto win just the ticket for ex-miners

Friday, August 04, 2006 posted 04:15 AM EDT

Two former coal miners who scooped a Lotto double rollover jackpot only realised they were multi-millionaires when one of them went along to collect the winnings.

John Ackerman and John Stinchcombe of Crumlin, south Wales, are £11,544,846 richer after the numbers on their shared ticket came up in last Wednesday's Lotto draw.

At a press conference in Cardiff yesterday, Mr Ackerman, 63, said he briefly checked his numbers last Thursday while rushing to get ready for a bus.

When he noticed he had at least three numbers, he assumed he had won just £50 and went to the town's Woolworths to collect it.

Mr Ackerman, who is married to 62-year-old Pearl, said staff at the store told him the prize was "too big for them to distribute" and he added: "It was only then that I realised we'd won the jackpot.

"I really just didn't believe it. I rang John straight away and he didn't believe me either."

Mr Stinchcombe, who is a 59-year-old father-of-two and grandfather-of-four, said: "I've led a very happy life without much money and have never really dreamed of winning the lottery.

"It's just unbelievable."

The two men, who have been friends for more than 40 years, lived next door but one to each until recently and worked apart in the neighbouring coal mines of Celynen North and South.

They were involved in the bitter strikes of the 1980s and admitted sometimes struggling to make ends meet.

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