Sleaford man looks to retire after £50,000 Pools win
A Lincolnshire man is celebrating a £50,000 win on The Pools that will allow him to retire five years earlier than planned.
Mark Shakespeare, 57, from Sleaford, claimed the prize on The Pools’ lotto game, Lucky Clover, after correctly predicting five out of six numbers, having started playing just a few months ago.
Mark first joined Curry’s as a 16-year-old Saturday employee, beginning an association with the retailer spanning 41 years. Now he is preparing to call time on his working life after the win.
Mark said: “I’d only started playing Lucky Clover a few months ago and had a couple of smaller wins but nothing like this. When I got the phone call from The Pools, I thought it might be a scam. I wasn’t expecting anything like £50,000, so I rang them back to make sure it was genuine!
“I’d been thinking about retirement for a while, but financially I wasn’t quite in a position to do it. Now I can pay off my mortgage and finish work sooner than I’d expected. I rang my boss to tell him what had happened and that I was going to retire. He was really pleased for me, which was lovely. I’ve since told my family and a few friends, so the news is starting to get around now.”
A long-standing Classic Pools player, Mark remembers filling in paper coupons and trying to predict which football matches would finish as draws in years gone by.
He added: “I used to sit there trying to work out which matches might end in a draw. These days I do everything online and just pick random numbers on Lucky Clover. I’ve had a few smaller wins over the years, but nothing remotely close to this.”
Joseph Carter-Bell, The Pools Director of Customer Success and Operations, said: “At The Pools we’re all about rewarding our loyal customers and that was certainly the case with this Lucky Clover selection. It’s wonderful to hear what this win means to Mark, particularly after so many years of hard work, and for him to now be able to make such a big decision about his future is fantastic.
“We’re delighted for Mark and we wish him every happiness in his future retirement.”
Lucky Clover, a lotto game based on the Irish Lottery, offers customers of The Pools the chance to win £1million twice a week by correctly matching six numbers.