A FORMER English Football League boss has bagged a share of a £1million postcode lottery despite a coaching a team for one of the world’s richest men 7,000 miles away.
Adrian Pennock has pocketed £83,333 along with other members of his Kent postcode including his son, after hitting the People’s Postcode Lottery jackpot.
AlamyEx-Gillingham and Forest Green Rovers boss Adrian Pennock has hit the jackpot[/caption]
But he is no stranger to riches already – having worked in football for the Crown Prince of Brunei, Al-Muhtadee Billah.
The prince is first in line to the Brunei throne and is heir to a fortune estimated at £20billion.
Pennock was managing then-non-league Barrow when he was recruited to take charge of DPMM who play in the Singapore Premier League – going on to lead them to a championship title.
He got the surprise call from a representative of the Crown Prince, who owns the now-professional club and played in goal for them when they started out as a college team.
Pennock, 52, has been in charge of DPMM since 2019, leading them to back-to-back league triumphs.
The Ipswich-born coach played professionally for Norwich City, Bournemouth and Gillingham where he remains a club legend after captaining the Gills to a Second Division promotion play-off triumph at Wembley in 2000.
He later spent time as manager of Forest Green Rovers and then League One club Gillingham in 2017, before moving on to Barrow in Cumbria the following year.
He retains a base in Gillingham’s home county of Kent and his ME7 3TG postcode in Hempstead was named winner of one of the latest weekly Millionaire Street draws.
He shares the £1million prize with nine neighbouring families who include his Ashley, a dad-of-two who works as a secondary school teacher.
Ashley made the call to tell his dad the good news, KentOnline reported.
He said: “To win as a family, I can’t believe it – to share this experience with them when they’re getting the same thing, it is just amazing.”
Ashley’s mum Tania said: “This is incredible for me and Adrian, but I’m so made up for my son and his wife.
“We’ve been sharing the anticipation together for the past week. It’s been such fun.”
Kent has already been dubbed “one of Britain’s luckiest counties” after three locals scooped £3million in Lotto prizes in just a fortnight.
And separately, in another People’s Postcode Lottery draw, neighbours in the town of Deal were shared another £1million.
One of them, pregnant mum Tamsin Burling, told of her close call which meant she almost missed out on her £83,000 windfall.
Other locals welcomed the news though told of one aspect leaving them feeling “gutted”.
Elsewhere, a quirk meant one lucky punter from Runcorn in Cheshire could keep an entire People’s Postcode Lottery jackpot to himself.
Meanwhile, coaches and players at a grass-roots football club in south London have told of their good work – backed by Lottery funding.
People’s Postcode LotteryAdrian Pennock’s son Ashley and mum Tania have also shared the £1million prize[/caption]
Pennock has gone on to coaching success in SingaporeRex Features