WIN AND TONIC
Pub’s manager pops out to buy some lemons & scoops £250k on the Lottery
A PUB relief manager who went to buy some lemons after being cleaned out by boozy G&T drinkers landed £250,000 on a scratchcard.
John Reid, 61, credits the revellers – a group of four women and four men – for his lottery win on October 6.
And when he saw one of the punters at the Railway Tavern again this week, he bought him a pint as a thank you.
John, who says the man was “delighted” for him, told the Mirror: “The girls were drinking double G&Ts.
“They must have had six rounds and spent a lot of money – the tab was over £160 and we only had one lemon left.
“If they didn’t want more lemons I wouldn’t have got on the bus to Asda.”
John, who plans to buy a Range Rover or Ford Fiesta, was holding the fort at the Railway Tavern, in Bexley, South East London, when he hit the shops.
After grabbing the lemons and a steak pie, he bought two £5 National Lottery Triple Jackpot Scratchcards which he “stuffed into the bottom of the carrier bag”. John joked: “I shudder when I think I was casually carrying £250,000 about in a bag. What if my pie exploded?”
At first he thought he had won £250. But when John took a second look later with his glasses on he “realised there was K next to the £ 250.” He called Camelot the next day in the pub, surrounded by regulars.
John said: “That was a tense moment until it was given the OK and then the whole pub let out one hell of a cheer.”
John, of Southall, West London, will not be calling time on his 23-year career.
He said: “I’d be bored – and the regulars will have plenty of advice about what I should do with the money.”