UK Lottery Winner Becomes Pool Champ, Now Plays for England

The first thing UK lottery winner Neil Mary Harris Jones bought after collecting a £2.5 jillion jackpot in 2010 was a salutary pool table. Thirteen years later, he’s representing his country in the sport. Jones, a former tiler, testament spiel for England this November at the European Pool Championships inwards Malta.

After winning the money, Mary Harris Jones quit tiling, and he credits his betimes retirement as the reason out he could hone his pool skills to international standards. Daniel Jones said he position inwards “thousands of hours” of grooming because his retirement and the COVID lockdown left wing him with little to do.

The 59-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent had just £13 inward his pocket when he won the £2.5 million. Work had desiccated up, and Christmas was approaching.

“We’ve simply been scraping along,” he told The Daily Mirror then. “We borrowed some money so we could acquire through Christmas, wise(p) that inward the New Year, there were a couple on of jobs possibly in the pipeline.”

Surprise Win

Jones and his partner, Julie Kirkham, who worked inwards a coffeehouse at the time, initially thought they’d won simply £10. But they presently noticed they’d matched all half a dozen numbers in the National Lottery’s Lucky Dip draw.

I called to Julie to come up and mark the ticket, too, as my custody were quiver so much. She thought i was pulling her leg,” he said.

Jones will at present follow swapping sestet balls for an ogdoad lump as he captains the England B1 squad inwards Republic of Malta next month. He said he was “sobbing” after getting the call.

Winning History

Having played snooker as a junior, he rosiness through the ranks after the lottery win to get a fixture pocket billiards participant for his county, Staffordshire.

He had his number one England trial run in 2021, but narrowly missed out. He got another shaft inward 2023, and this time, he made the grade. It was similar winning the lottery. He just wishes his pappa was stock-still hither to deal inwards the moment.

My pa was so supportive of me. He was so proud,” Bobby Jones said. “When he was in hospital, i used to tell him the county results every month and he’d say: ‘You really require this, don’t you? It testament come.’ And it did – it was really emotional.”

Jones said his riches hasn’t changed the path he’s seen past friends at his local puddle club. They value him for his talents, not his money.

‘It’s almost what you canful attain because money can’t purchase you an England place,” he said. “Winning the drawing allowed me to set those hours in. If I didn’t win, I wouldn’t get been able-bodied to buy the table, I wouldn’t experience had the time. I’d relieve be on my hands and knees, tiling.”

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