Railway syndicate scoops £1 million lottery win

When Steve Corrigan discovered that lottery syndicate the Stephenson’s Rockets had scooped a £1 million jackpot, he didn’t go off the rails.

Instead he left it another 24 hours to tell the other 53 members that they had won – until he had double checked that it really was true.

Today members of the syndicate came together at the National Railway Museum in York to celebrate.

They all work as railway signalling design engineers for Network Rail across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the North East.

And they’re each £18,500 richer after their numbers matched in the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw – on Friday 13th October, which turned out to be a very lucky day.

‘I couldn’t quite believe it’

Leader of the syndicate Steve, who lives in Huntington, York, bought the winning ticket from Sainsbury in Monks Cross.

He said: “I checked the ticket in the local supermarket the Thursday after the draw. The assistant said it was a winning ticket but she couldn’t tell me how much.

“She just said it was over £500. I just assumed it would be £501!

“I went home, very calmly and checked the app on my phone and it said we had won £1 million. I couldn’t quite believe it and I don’t think it really sank in how much £1 million really is.”

Steve said he decided not to tell the other syndicate members until the end of the working day on the Friday:

This just seemed the perfect time to do it. At the end of the week. What better news to end the week on?

I just sent an email to everyone to ask them to meet me in the canteen at 3.30pm.

I said to everyone I had news about our ticket and the win was a level where we needed to discuss how we would share the cash.

I asked people to guess how much they thought we had won – a couple of people shouted £1,000! I then said – so, we could buy 400,000 tickets or take the cash – £1 million – I think everyone was just totally shocked.

New cars and holidays planned

Syndicate members ages range from 21 to 60 and in addition to a special work Christmas party this year, their plans also include deposits on houses, new kitchens, cars and holidays.

Since the win, the work syndicate has been growing in size and now has 71 members.

Steve, who bought the winning ticket from Sainsburys in Monks Cross, added, “We certainly aren’t going to stop playing now – if Friday 13th can bring us this much luck – who knows what future Fridays can bring to us.

“I think more and more people now want to share in the luck and the chance of winning. This is an amazing sum of money which will make a real difference to all of our lives.”