What would you do?

Do you remember where you were on the 19 November 1994? I do. Some 18 years ago many of us were sitting at home glued to our televisions sets for a very new experience.

The BBC One TV show was 60 minutes long and hosted by the bearded one now famous for a Channel 4 show with red boxes. Noel Edmonds presided on that night over the first ever National Lottery. Many of us had queued up in newsagents across the land to choose our numbers and the nation sat enthralled in front of our telly boxes grasping our little tickets in our hands.

I remember actually feeling like I had a chance. I actually believed just a little that I might win the jackpot. For weeks before the news shows had ad statisticians telling us that in fact there was only a 1 in 14 million chance of winning the jackpot...but no one was listening. What did they know? Tat night was the night when dreams would be made.

http://www.foviance.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/main_national-lottery.gif

When the numbers were drawn they were in ascending order 3, 5, 14, 22, 30 and 44. The bonus was 10. There were in fact 7 lucky jackpot winners all sharing a prize of £5,874,778.

Not to be sniffed at but on that first night there were no jackpot winners.

I only managed one number that night. I know this because I have played the same numbers in nearly every lottery draw since. In my opinion these numbers have not been that lucky. In fact I think I am due a big win.

My most memorable time playing the lottery occurred when I managed to get the first three balls out of the machine. I was actually watching he draw and saw the first three balls drop from the machine. This was genuinely exciting. I really thought I had a chance. Obviously there were no more numbers however the up side was that I still won £10.

My problem is that I am now a slave to the National Lottery and have to play both on Saturday and Wednesday, due obviously to having my regular numbers. Occasionally I forget to buy a ticket and then I watch the draw hoping that none of my numbers turn up. So far they haven't.

Tonight for the first time in all those years the National Lottery has rolled over for 4 draws, a quadruple rollover with a jackpot estimated at £19.6 million.

As I said earlier my numbers are due a win.

The lottery site says that it is life changing - £19.6 million certainly would be.

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