North Yorkshire enjoyed a double dose of lottery success today as three York men scooped a £20,000 scratch card jackpot and a village hall near the city received a £71,000 lottery grant.

Friends Simon Allen, 18, Sam McKec, 27, and Owen Buckle, 20, from York, bought their winning Cash Bonanza Instants card on a night out in the city - after being turned away from a nightclub because they were wearing T-shirts.

They popped into Tesco at Clifton Moor to buy some shirts and picked up the scratch card at the same time.

Simon said: "Sam had a funny feeling that we had chosen the winning ticket, and when we scratched the numbers off we realised we had.

"We ran out of the shop jumping and screaming and then went back to the club in our new shirts and carried on the celebrations there."

Although the fantastic win has not yet had time to sink in for the three men, Simon was so overcome that he completely forgot Mother's Day and now plans to make it up to his mum with an extra large bouquet of flowers. The three men are thinking about spending some of their winnings on their first trip abroad to enjoy a snowboarding holiday.

Elsewhere, villagers of Moor Monkton were today celebrating a £71,409 award to renovate and extend the old school room which acts as their village hall.

The Richard Kay Charity, a newly-established organisation which will manage the Moor Monkton Millennium Project to renovate the hall, has just received the news. Trevor Woodward, chairman of the project, said: "We are totally gobsmacked.

"The money exceeds the £51,000 we applied for because the lottery board wanted to be sure we were in a position to complete the project."

It is hoped work to replace the floor, damp-proofing and sound-proofing and add an extra room above will start within weeks.

Mr Woodward said: "We don't have a pub or any community facilities at all in Moor Monkton so this hall is very important."

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