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Viv Nicholson
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Viv Nicholson... Famous Pools Winner. That’s me. People have never forgotten it. That’s who I am to a lot of people. It was big news back then though. Who’d have thought, me Viv Nicholson a Cas las from Castleford, in the papers, dressed to the nines and money to burn.
We’d struggled back then. Keith, I, and the kids just about got by on 7 pounds a week. We borrowed that 5 bob from my mam to put on the pools. It was only the third time we’d put money on and when I heard those score draws I remember thinking, well, at least we can pay that back now. It didn’t sink in straight away. We’d hit the jackpot
4 million it was, in today’s money. It caused an uproar. It wasn’t like today with lottery winners every week and all your reality TV stars in the papers. People like me didn’t hit the big time, but there I was!
All my life I’d had nothing. You know, I’d been working since I was 12 to bring money home when dad was on the sick, and suddenly me, Viv Nicholson, a miner’s daughter brought up on a pittance, could have it all and that is what I vowed to do.
In 1961 our win was the biggest ever and all eyes were on me when they asked me what I would do with it and I came out with those three little words… “Spend, Spend, Spend!“.
Until that win, everything I’d got had a hole in it. Straight off I bought 7 outfits and 7 pairs of shoes to match, then it was back to the cobbles in a Cadillac. I didn’t even have a license but so what! The people of Castleford lined the streets and the press was all over us. Then the parties started. It was the sixties, we were just kids and they were wild times. With all that money landing in our laps, it suddenly seemed there were no limits. We traveled like we’d always dreamt of doing. Booze, big cars, big spending, big headlines. We were never out of the papers back then.
It seemed like we had it all but it wasn’t a bed of roses. A lot of people turned their backs on us. We didn’t quite fit in anywhere but worse than that was the money, the drinking, and the partying came between me and Keith. We had some fantastic times together. The best of times but, looking back, we’d never been closer than when we were skint and splitting a packet of fags. He was the love of my life.
Just 4 years after that Littlewoods win, I lost him. Keith was killed at the wheel of his Jag aged just 27. Without him, I was a lost soul.
The tax man took what was left of the money and in the years that followed I almost went under… but somehow I bounced back. Three more husbands, singing for my supper in the clubs, and a battle with booze later I’m back here in Castleford waiting for pension day. There’s been a West End musical, The best-selling novel, and a film play for today made about my life. Talk about highs and lows! The musical has been a hit and I’ve made some great friends through the theatre. Just like me, it’s coming home for a run at Castleford theatre so maybe I’ll be the talk of the town again. Not bad for a pensioner, eh?
