How did I celebrate my £50k prize from the Mail? A nice G&T!
‘Absolutely ecstatic’
RENE Pottle well started her weekend like she often does – relaxing in her armchair with the Daily Mail while the cricket was playing on the radio.
then came the news that knocked her for six. She had won £50,000 in the Daily Mail’s Great Summer treasure Hunt.
‘It was quite a surprise,’ she said. ‘I don’t think it has sunk in yet.’
the 87-year- old has been solving puzzles in the paper for almost 40 years without a penny’s reward.
But her persistence finally paid off last weekend after she cracked the clues to reveal this week’s cryptic answer.
Mrs Pottlewell solved the six puzzles in last week’s papers, by solving clues and unscrambling an anagram to reveal a six letter word associated with the Great British summer, which turned out to be ‘suntan’.
the pensioner, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, is all for splashing the cash – although she hasn’t set her mind on a treat. She said: ‘ It’s a big amount isn’t it? We might have a holiday somewhere, probably in England.
‘Scarborough is our favourite place. We like the east coast. We love to just travel around Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby. I might as well spend it. I’ve got to that age now where there is no point in saving it. I’ll find something.’
Her friend and housemate Barbara Swann, however, has something a bit more glamorous in mind. ‘I’d like an open top sports car,’ she joked. ‘It’d be lovely. Mercedes are very nice – or an Audi.’
Mrs Pottlewell is happy to share her winnings with Mrs Swann, 86, but for now the pair are keeping their celebrations low key.
A simple stroll around the local park followed by a gin and tonic will suffice for the weekend. ‘ We’re not telling anybody of course!’ said Mrs Swann. ‘they’ll know when they see me turn up in my sports car!’
Meanwhile, ten runners-up bagged £1,000 each. tony Wilson, from Coventry, said he planned to use his winnings to fund a holiday to tunisia.
‘ I’m absolutely ecstatic,’ said the 59-year-old.
‘My neighbour was hanging out the washing with her headphones on and I just shouted at her: “I’ve just won a grand thanks to the Daily Mail!”
‘I will wait until the weather’s chilled out a bit for tunisia, though.’
A bonus £5,000 winner was also selected from 130,000 entries over the past two weeks. Enid May, who pocketed the sum, said the first thing she will do is take her family out for a slap-up meal.
‘I’m on top of the world,’ said the 81-year-old, from torpoint in Cornwall.
‘I was cleaning out my front room when the call came. then I had to have a sit down. I think if I’d won the £50,000 I’d have passed out.’