A builder who won the lottery celebrated his win by going back to work and buying a round of bacon butties for all his coworkers.
Paul Bevans, from Pembrokeshire in Wales, popped down to his local Nisa store on Marble Hall Road in Milford Haven a couple of months back on 27 March to buy himself a lottery ticket – and to his surprise, the ticket he bought ended up matching all five main numbers in the National Lottery’s ‘Set For Life’ draw.
His win means he now gets an impressive jackpot of £10,000 every month for a year.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Paul told the National Lottery after his win, “In fact I was so unsure, that I scanned the ticket about five times with my eyes firmly open, and each time there was the same winning message.”
The 50-year-old wasted absolutely no time in celebrating after hitting the jackpot, but first made sure to hop in his van and head back to work to “show [his] boss and the other lads” the ticket, before heading to the local shop to get it checked over properly and calling the National Lottery.
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Not only that, but he also treated his work pals by “shouting the lads a bacon, sausage and egg roll to celebrate” his win.
Builder celebrates winning lottery by buying bacon butties for all his coworkers / Credit: Aled Llywelyn (via the National Lottery)
Paul has revealed that, for now, he has no plans to stop working despite his win, and once he made the call to the National Lottery to confirm the ticket, he headed straight back to the house clearance job he was on along with everyone else.
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He has said that he’s beginning to think about what the future may hold, and does have a couple of ideas on his wish list for spending his winnings.
“To be honest it really hasn’t sunk in,” Paul admitted.
“The idea that £10,000 will be paid to me every month for the next year takes some getting used to. I’ve worked all my life but never had money like that, or dreamt I ever would, but I do have a few ideas up my sleeve.
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The 50-year-old gets £10,000 every month for a year / Credit: Aled Llywelyn (via the National Lottery)
“I won’t be buying anything too soon, I’ve waited this long so I’ll wait until the end of the summer when there should be some good deals about.
“If I can get the time off, I might book myself a little trip to Jamaica, as years ago my mum went and she said it was an island paradise, so I fancy a bit of that. And the only other thing on my wish list for now is a trip to Anfield to see Liverpool play at home.
“I’ve been a lifelong fan and never seen them play, other than on the telly.”
Paul also started saving up for a campervan a couple of years back, and his winnings now mean he could be the proud owner of one by the end of the year “hit the open road and explore more of Wales and the UK”.
Featured Image – Aled Llywelyn (via the National Lottery)
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
12th May 2023 
