BOLTON hit the jackpot today when it appeared in a league table of the luckiest towns in the country, compiled by the National Lottery.

In the survey, based on the number of jackpot winning tickets in each of the country's 115 postcode areas, Bolton's BL marking was ranked at number 52.

Compiled using figures from when the lottery started in November 1994 up to the present day, the study revealed that the town has had 15 jackpot winners, 11 of whom became instant millionaires.

Those who have gone public include, Kathyn Ottewill. She scooped almost £6 million in February 2002. David Russell won more than £4 million in the same month.

A syndicate from the Bolton Museum also triumphed in March 2001, taking home £830,568.

In one case in June 2000, a ticket worth about £1 million which had been sold in Bolton went unclaimed, despite widespread publicity.

With one in 18,654 players matching the six numbers, the town still has long way to go before it catches up with first placed Ilford in Essex. There, one in 9,429 guessed correctly.

Second place went to Perth in Scotland where there have been 11 jackpot winning tickets -- meaning that one in 10,559 of the tiny population has hit the jackpot.

Other towns which finished high in the pecking order include Watford in Hertfordshire, where Julie and Chris Jeffrey won £1,038,997 in June.

Romford, Doncaster and Grimsby also placed highly.

At the other end of the scale, Telford is lagging behind, with just three jackpot winning tickets.

Jaquie Wilson, from Camelot, said: "We felt the nation would be keen to know how many jackpot winners there have really been in their local area."

She added: "The odds of winning the jackpot on Lotto are well known at 14 million to one.

"However, on average, around £42 million is paid out in prize money every week.

This news comes despite the recent revelation that nationally there has been a fall in the number of tickets being bought each week.