Retired Nanticoke fisherman catches $2 million ace

The influx of thousands of people to the town of Hagersville every Thursday – and with them an air of excitement – ​​has come to an end.

The wildly popular Catch the Ace draw resulted in a big win on Thursday evening for Richard Marshall of Nanticoke.

“I just got lucky, that’s all,” Marshall said on Friday after going to the legion with his wife Lorna to pick up a check for $2,035,295.

It’s likely the biggest catch of his life.

Marshall, age 83, is a retired commercial fisherman who worked on fishing boats on Lake Superior, as well as out of Nanticoke, Port Dover and Port Burwell on Lake Erie.

“My wife’s got relatives in Switzerland,” said Marshall when asked about his plans after the big win. “I think we’ll go back over there and visit them for a while.”

Marshall’s ticket was drawn from among 152,995 tickets that were sold on Thursday.

That meant he was the winner of the weekly prize – 20 per cent of the day’s ticket sales – which totaled $203,678.

At the outset of the draw 11 months ago, each playing card from a deck of 52 was placed in individual envelopes with a number between 1 and 52 written on it.

When purchasing tickets, buyers would write a number on the ticket for the envelope they believed contained the ace of spades.

Marshall wrote 51 on his ticket, and when Hagersville Lions Club event chair Dan Matten opened the envelope, it revealed the ace of spades.

Marshall ended up winning the progressive jackpot of $1,831,617 on top of the $203,678.

The weekly Catch the Ace draw was put on by the Hagersville Lions Club, and the Hagersville Rocks committee of the town’s Chamber of Commerce.

“This is truly a joint effort,” said Hagersville Chamber of Commerce president Rob Phillips. “There’s no way either of our organizations could have pulled this off on our own. There are close to 50 volunteers that put this event on each and every week.”

The Lions Club will donate half of their proceeds to the Hagersville Food Bank and put the remainder toward their community project.

The Haldimand Rocks committee will give their proceeds to the West Haldimand General Hospital Foundation.

While a final tally will take several days, Matten said that after costs are deducted, he estimates about $3 million was raised that will be split by the two organizations.

“Every one of us worked really hard,” Matten said. “It was fun, and we enjoyed doing it, and we did it for the right reasons.”

In the first week of the draw 45 weeks ago, a mere 115 tickets were sold.

For this week’s draw, ticket sales totaled $1,018,390.

“We have a wonderful result,” said Matten. “We put Hagersville on the map, and with something so positive, it’s just fantastic.”

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