Overjoyed staff from the Tesco store on George Street hugged each other as they celebrated a life changing experience by winning a share of one of the biggest jackpots in the Lotto's history.

They were given the day off work yesterday, to celebrate the amazing windfall after picking the winning numbers 7, 12, 16, 24, 29 and 37.

Stunned team leader, Rose Bradley, 53, one of the winners, who has pocketed what is believed to be a £4.2 share of the cash as she held three syndicate tickets, said winning was unbelieveable.

She said: "We have been in the syndicate more or less since it started. We have always kept the same numbers, and even when people have left, we have kept the same numbers.

"A few years since, we got about £1,000 but never anything big, only a few tenners here and there, certainly nothing as big as this."

The staff only found out they had won Saturday's jackpot yesterday.

Team leader Sue Brusby had returned from holiday late on Monday night, checked Teletext, and realised the syndicate had won the sixth biggest jackpot in the Lotto's 11-year history.

Mrs Bradley added: "She rang me and said 'do we still do the same numbers?' and I said yes. She said 'We've got six numbers'.

I said 'I'll come down and check' and we sat in the cash office checking and then got someone else to check the numbers before we knew we had won. It is unbelievable."

Mr Norman Harris, 58, of Mill Falls, Driffield,whose wife Sue works at the store and won £1.4 million said: "I am still shocked. "I nearly dropped the phone when she told me. I could not believe her and I had to ask her three times."

He said she had not made a decision on how to spend the money. "It is something we have to think about. We do not want to make a snap decision. It has still got to sink in."

Another winner is Kirsty Waites, 26, the daughter of Chris and Liz Waites. She now works in Northallerton but stayed in the syndicate after leaving Driffield.

Chris, her dad, 58, said: "She will definitely know how to spend it but she is level headed enough to know what to do."
Mum Liz add-ed: "I think the only thing she might do is buy a horse."

The single biggest win in the Lotto's 1,000 draws was £22,590,829 by business partners Paul Maddison and Mark Gardiner, of Hastings, East Sussex, in 1995.

The all important set of balls chosen for the 1,000th draw was set number 4 and the draw mach-ine was Amethyst.