AN after-work drink turned into the best night of their lives for a group of Jersey friends as they became the winners of the biggest lottery prize in Channel Islands history.

Danny Bosio and Lee de Ste Croix watched open-mouthed in the So Bar on the Esplanade as the Jersey Hospice £1 million raffle was drawn on Channel TV a few hundred yards away at the Grand Jersey. With the first three digits down, they knew that singer Nerina Pallot held their fortunes in her hand as she reached for the final numbered ball. When she pulled out a six – to make the winning number 5066 – they knew that they and eight friends were each £100,000 richer. Lee said: ‘We were just out for a Friday night. When we started doing high fives people thought we were taking the mickey.’ Soon they were swapping their pints for champagne at the Grand and trying to contact the other members of their syndicate, although some are away and others were still out surfing. The other members of the winning syndicate were Robert English, his cousin Wayne English, Glenn Coxon, Barry Hardisty, Nigel Lumb, Ashley Vardon, Dave Sellars and Lee’s dad, Brian de Ste Croix. There were four other prizes: £50,000 went to ticket number 4289, £25,000 to 1292, £15,000 to 1850, and £10,000 to 3108.