AN amateur rugby league player has described how he ran around his garden screaming and shouting after realising he had scooped the jackpot prize of £300,000 on a National Lottery scratch card.

Craig Lyon couldn’t believe it as he revealed the panels of a Bingo Pink card which showed he had won the top prize on the third scratch card he had bought that day.

“I checked it, and checked it, and then checked it again. I just couldn’t believe it,” said the 31-year-old, who was speaking at Langtree Park today.

He continued: “I rang up the Lottery and as soon as they confirmed it, I was running around the garden screaming and shouting.”

Dad-of-one Craig had bought the scratch card earlier that day with money from a previous winner. Keeping the card to one side until he got home, he told how he knew it was the jackpot as he scratched.

The Saints season ticket holder and Blackbrook rugby league player, who is also part of ‘Martin Murray’s Barmy Army’ who follow the boxer around the globe, said: “It sounds mad but I knew I was going to win the jackpot as I was scratching the card – I just felt lucky.

“I couldn’t tell my wife Emma over the phone so I drove down to her work and she wouldn’t believe me, it just came as such a huge shock.”

Former RAF man Craig, now a field sales engineer in Manchester, and Emma have already started planning a new home with the winnings as well as a dream trip to Disneyland Florida with three-year-old son, Alfie.

Alfie, whose fourth birthday is in March, wanted to go to Peppa Pig World but now dad Craig says they can go one-better and “Peppa Pig has turned into Mickey Mouse”.

As well as assuring his Saints season ticket will be funded foryears to come, the winnings have come as a sign for Craig who believes 2014 will be the Barmy Army’s year.

He said: “I get called the ‘General’ of the Barmy Army and after a pretty disappointing end to last year, we all said that 2014 was going to be our year and it’s definitely started great.”

“When asked if he had any other plans on how to spend the money, Craig said: “I need to sit down and assess everything because it’s still not really sunk in yet.

“The main thing is to look after my family and have our best interests in mind.

"We can live comfortably now with this money and it’s going to make life a lot easier for us.”