Pools win sets new record

A FATHER and son yesterday scooped a record pools win of pounds 2.25m, beating the pounds 2.246m which went to a Bournemouth man in 1992, writes Esther Oxford.

Harry Mallett, 76, and his son Barry, 45, both from Harwich in Essex, picked up their cheque at at a celebration organised by Littlewoods at the Dorchester hotel in London.

'I thought it was a wind-up,' said Barry, who forgot to check his coupon and had to be told of the win by his wife. 'I expected Jeremy Beadle to come out at any moment.'

Just a few months ago Barry accepted a pay cut of pounds 80 a week to keep his job as a loader at Parkeston Quay, Harwich. He said he intended to pay off the pounds 25,000 mortgage on his home - built during the war as temporary accommodation - get a new car and buy his wife a new wardrobe of clothes.

His father said he planned to be 'sensible'. The possibility of a new bungalow had occurred to him, but first he planned to help his family. 'I have nine other children to look after,' he added.