There is always more than one way to do it. Not sure how well 'tail' works with large files though: - 
$ cat my.log
2005
2005
2005
2006
2006
2006
2007
2007
2007
2007

$ ls -l my.log 
-rw-r--r-- 1 bsdz mygroup 50 Mar 27 18:00 my.log

$ grep -bm 1 2007 my.log 
30:2007

$ tail -c $((50-30)) my.log
2007
2007
2007
2007

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In reply to Re: line number ($.) problem ? by bsdz
in thread line number ($.) problem ? by 5mi11er

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