Football club makes history with £1m lottery win
BBCAfter more than 30 years of playing the lottery, a football club has made history by winning £1m.
Bill Davis, president of Longlevens AFC, has been entering the same numbers - each picked by a member 32 years ago - on behalf of the Gloucester club for decades and was shocked to be told it had won the sum last month.
The club, which plays in the ninth tier of English football, is yet to decide what to do with its prize, but Davis says the win "secures the future of the club", with the potential to buy its facilities.
Andy Carter, winners' adviser at the National Lottery, said a football club winning "had never happened before", despite 8,000 people becoming lottery millionaires in 32 years.
The club plays in the Hellenic League Premier Division for amateur and semi-professional clubs.
Davis said the club had been spending £200 a year on lottery tickets, and even considered stopping playing when it was still just £1 a ticket and money was "tight".
When he was first contacted by operator of the National Lottery, Allwyn, Davis thought he might be looking at a sum of "four, five figures".
"It got to be a bit of a stand-in joke with us that we'd never actually win, but you always had that dream that you could," he said.
"And goodness me, here we are, dream come true."
Davis said the committee was yet to discuss how the money would be spent, but added the priority was improving the club - especially the clubhouse - and not throwing money at things "just for the sake of it".
Mark Cornell, Longlevens AFC's chair, said there were a few things that needed "a little bit of maintenance" and the money meant the work could be done.
"It's nice for some of the stalwarts of the club that have been around for 30, 40 years to get a day like this," he said.
"It just means we can preserve the club for moving forward and I think that's the most important thing, really."
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