The tiler-turned-England pool player from Stoke who won the lottery with only £13 left
A tiler who had just £13 in his pocket when he won £2.4 million on the National Lottery, has revealed his first jackpot splurge - a pool table.
Neil Jones who's 59 and from Stoke-on-Trent, first played snooker as a junior.
Not only is he celebrating his big win, he's now preparing to represent England at next month's European Pool Championships in Malta.
He described the jackpot-winning moment as "fantastic and life-changing", and says he's spent "many many hours" indulging his passion for playing pool since buying his own table.
On his pool-playing background, Neil says:
"I was in the local club watching a bit of football, picked a cue up and progressed from there, from the lower teams, then the county teams, then getting trials for England.
"I've spent many, many, many hours practising"
Neil says it wasn't a hard decision when it came to deciding what to buy first with the lottery win, saying:
"I was getting better, wanted to hone my skills, went out and bought a table, set it up in my spare room and spent many many, many, many hours practising".
Neil Jones and his partner Julie Kirkham won the life-changing cash just before Christmas 2010.
The couple decided to finish the year with their “old life” before starting a new one on January 1st 2011.
After retiring from his job as a tiler, Neil rose up through the ranks to become a regular county player, before his first England trial back in 2021.
After narrowly missing out, he continued playing and practising until he was asked to trial again early this year.
This time he was successful – and was awarded his England colours during a Home Nations tournament.
After a solid debut performance, Mr Jones has not only been chosen to represent England in the European Pool Championships early next month, but he has also been asked to captain the England B1 team.
"If my dad had been here now, he would be in Malta with me"
Neil, who plays at The Plaza club in Fenton, says he wishes his late father was here to see his success. He said:
“My dad was so supportive of me. He was so proud.
"When he was in hospital, I used to tell him the county results every month and he’d say ‘you really want this don’t you? It will come’ and it did – it was really emotional.
"I try to motivate the other boys [on the team], so when I was asked if I wanted to be captain for England, I couldn’t say no to that.
"I was sobbing, I couldn’t talk. If my dad had been here now, he would be in Malta with me.”
"We gave everyone £100 for Christmas"
Neil has also been also a part-time singer in pubs and clubs as well as a tiler, and says it took 18 months for the news of his lottery win to sink in. He said:
“Whenever we got a chance, we would pop into the local Bargain Booze and we always bought a £3 lucky dip, that’s all we ever did.“
"We would win the odd tenner, I suppose. I used to joke with [the shop owner] that he was selling duds because we hardly won – but when we got the big one, I said to him ‘you’re not selling duds anymore’.
“Before we won, we’d got enough money sorted out for Christmas but then December 8th, our big numbers came up.
“We didn’t spend a penny until the New Year. I stuck to my plan of everyone getting £100 for Christmas – I wanted to get our old life out of the way - January 1, we started a new life. I didn’t tell anyone at first, not until we went public.“
"There were no words. I was checking the ticket for 45 minutes. It was all on Ceefax back then.
"Julie rang Camelot and they said, ‘are you sitting down? You’re the only winner and it’s £2.4 million’.“
Mr Jones says his millionaire status has not changed the way his friends at the pool club see him, saying they respect him for his talents, not his money.
He said:
“It’s a completely different life, but anyone who knows me knows I’m grounded. Down the pool club, it’s not a big deal, no one mentions it.
“It’s about what you can achieve, because money can’t buy you an England place.
“I respect money – if you’ve never grafted for money I think it can slip through your fingers, but we’ve never been those kind of people, we’ve always worked.”
Mr Jones is now looking forward to jetting out to Malta and says he wants to “do the country proud”.
He said: “Playing for my country is one of the proudest moments. This game can be so unforgiving.
"You will have a spell where it just hates you and you feel like you’ve never picked a cue up in your life, but you have to play through those times.
"If it wasn’t for my National Lottery win, I wouldn’t be telling this story.
"I didn’t have that much money left in the world when I won, and now I’m captaining my country.
"I can’t wait to fly out to Malta, put on that England shirt and lead the team out.”