Looking back... Glengormley friends scoop £380,000 on football pools

Friends Jimmy Gault and Billy Stranaghan shared the windfall in February 1959.

Jimmy, a 53-year-old ganger and part-time taxi driver, was quick to pack his bags and three days later, he was at Nutt’s Corner airport for the first leg of a 12,000 mile journey to Auckland on holiday with wife Mary.

Meanwhile, Billy, a pensioner, “sat unemotionally” in his favourite armchair whilst his wife went about her daily business in the drapery shop at the front of their home,

Billy told reporters: “All I want is my eyesight back. I would do anything to be able to see again.”

However, he admitted that his bad eyesight had helped the pair scoop the jackpot.

He revealed that Jimmy helped him to fill in the pools coupon every week.

“We fill it in together. I told Jimmy to put Barrow down to draw but then I told him to change it to Darlington but he didn’t and I didn’t know because I could not see it,” said Billy.

However, the trick paid off and the pair were £380,684 richer for a joint stake of just nine shillings.

His 69-year-old wife added: “I think it is time to retire.”