Keith and Viv Nicholson

One of the most notorious and well remembered characters associated with the Pools was Viv Nicholson - the Castleford miner's wife who vowed to "spend, spend, spend" after her husband Keith scooped the Littlewoods jackpot in 1961. And spend she did, blowing almost half their £152,000 fortune (£2.2 million by today's standards) in just four years on all-night partying, new hairdos, cars and clothes!

Irene Powell

Irene Powell, an unemployed hairdresser from Port Talbot in South Wales, decided to do the Football Pools for the first time in 1979 and immediately became Littlewoods' biggest winner. The £750,000 barrier was broken as 19-year-old Irene received a cheque for more than £882,000 from TV personalities Lennie Bennett and Jerry Stevens. Irene did not even bother to check her coupon, as it was her birthday on the Sunday. "I had no idea I had won until the man from Littlewoods called," she said. "I couldn't believe it."

Nurse's Syndicate

The first £1 million pools payout came in April 1986 when a syndicate of nurses and hospital workers from Devizes in Wiltshire scooped £1,017,890. But the nine nurses and two domestic staff had to thank the patients at their psychiatric hospital for the triumph as it was the patients who picked the winning numbers!

The syndicate, led my Nursing Sister Margaret Francais, had used the same numbers for a year without success, and in early April 1986 asked their patients to draw random numbers from a hat.

Elaine McDonagh

In October 1987, Elaine McDonagh emptied her purse and found 40p - enough for one full 8 from 10 perm on Littlewoods Pools. Husband Tom found another 80p and said: "What the hell, we night as well go for three lines." The West Yorkshire couple and their three children, together surviving on £90 a week scoial security benefits, saw that last-minute decision pay off spectacularly, with a £1,010,172 pools win.

For the family, from the Bronte village of Haworth, it was a story to rival any work of fiction. Unemployed Tom was struggling to find work as a joiner while Elaine was studying an accounting course at college. With no spare money even to buy sweets for the children, Elaine had decided they could afford only 40p with Littlewoods that week - until Tom persuaded her to gamble their last 80p on two more lines. It was the third line that won.

Rodi Woodcock

Rodi Woodcock, a laboratory technician from South London, made the headlines in October 1991 when she became the first Littlewoods Pools double millionaire. The 51-year-old mother of two took a £2,072,220 jackpot for a stake of just 54p, and in doing so became the sixth woman to become an instant millionaire courtesy of Littlewoods.

Rodi's winning numbers in her 8 from 10 perm were based on family birthdays and anniversaries. She had used the same numbers for six years. "I was thinking of trying new numbers because I hadn't won but thank God I didn't," said Rodi who celebrated her win with then 'Bergerac' TV star John Nettles.

David Caldwell

David Caldwell's own birthday helped him win £2,267,636 with Littlewoods in 1994. Postman David, who received his winning cheque from actress Joanna Lumley, used family birth dates - including his own - to select his coupon numbers. He kept the same numbers going for twenty years. "If I had been a day late or a day early, it would have cost me a fortune," he said. Fittingly, David celebrated his 47th birthday two days later!

Yew Tree Inn Syndicate

The biggest ever pools winners had to wait 10 days to get their hands on the money because the head of the syndicate was on holiday on the Costa Blanca and refused to come home early! Terry Wilson was on holiday with fellow syndicate members Brian and Doreen Froggat when news of the record-breaking win of £2,924,622 came through. It was left to Harold Hampson, syndicate member and former landlord of the Yew Tree Inn in Worsley, Greater Manchester, to break the news to his fellow winners.

Harold said, "I was doing a bit of gardening when one of the syndicate members arrived with Stan Roberts from Littlewoods. He told me that we'd have to wait for confirmation of the win and we spent a nervous couple of hours - and the best part of a bottle of whiskey - waiting for the call. How do you describe that feeling of finding out you've won the pools - you just can't.

The Pools record was set in November 1994 on the same weekend of the first-ever National Lottery.