A COUPLE missed out on winning a €4.3million jackpot after their regular numbers came up – but they had given up playing the lotto six weeks earlier.
Terry Davies, 44, and fiance Samantha Eves, 50, who live in Wexford, were “absolutely gutted” when they realised their usual numbers had come up, but they won nothing.
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The couple started playing the winning numbers, 32, 33, 35, 44, 47 and 3 in the UK’s National Lottery ‘Set for Life’ four years ago.
When they moved to Ireland last summer, Terry could no longer play the UK lotto so switched to the Euromillions.
But his worst nightmare came true when his lucky numbers were drawn in ‘Set for Life’ on December 27 – meaning he had missed out on the €4.3million jackpot – £3.6m.
He said: “You know that feeling, that one day you’re going to win the lottery? I actually had that feeling.
“It was about 2018 that I started with those numbers and I never got anything. The most I ever got was two. When we came here, I thought you can’t do ‘Set of Life’ here, so I’ll do Euromillions instead. It made sense to drop that one.
“I had stopped for about six weeks, but one night I thought I’ll just check the ‘Set for Life’ draw on the app and when I saw the numbers, I nearly cried. I just thought, this is bloody typical.”
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In the Set for Life draw, winners get £10,000 every month for 30 years, which is the equivalent of €4.3million in total.
Terry said he and his fiance were sickened at first when they realised how much they would have won.
Thankfully though, they can now have a laugh about it.
He said: “We laughed, when we checked how much it would have been. You couldn’t make it up. You’ve got to laugh, otherwise you would just spiral out of control.
“We were in a pub last night, and we told some of the guys at the bar and they all laughed. And they all said, ‘Oh my god, it’s the kind of thing you’d read about in The Irish Sun.
“One of the guys said, ‘there’s no way’ and I showed him the numbers and I said, ‘look it’s my only claim to fame’. Only there’s no fame, because I didn’t win anything.”
LOTTO DREAM
Good humoured Terry said they would have splashed the cash on a five-star holiday and on property, if they had won.
He said: “First thing she’d do is go on holiday, to the Maldives or something like that. She’s also a shopaholic so half of it would be confiscated by her, and me being square, I would have invested it into property or something. She also would have bought her kids a car.”
Terry said the close shave was even more sickening, as he hasn’t yet found a job in Ireland.
The 44-year-old had an IT company in Ascott just outside London before moving to Ireland last August.
He said: “Just knowing you had that financial stability and that you didn’t need to get a job, would have been really nice.”
SECOND CHANCE
Terry said he is currently playing the same numbers in Euromillions, although he has had to add one extra number to his usual selection.
He reckons the chances of winning again, however, are slim to none.
He said: “I bought a ticket again with the same numbers, and I thought ‘is it because I can’t stop’?
“Because you do get quite excited when you get a ticket, there’s always that ‘what if’? Would I help everyone out? Because you can’t spend it all on yourself. There’s lots of things you can do.
“If it happened again on those numbers, it would surely be trillions to one. It’s not going to happen, the dream’s over. I’ve got to change them.”
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