AHOSKIE – Daniel Vann of Ahoskie hit the tiebreaker right on the nose en route to winning week number one of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald’s 2003 Football Contest. For his effort, Vann will pocket $50.

In a week that drew 112 entries, Vann wound-up tied for first place with four other contestants – Douglas Clark of Kelford, Kevin Cale of Ahoskie, Brandon Jones of Murfreesboro and Janice Sharpe of Windsor. Each posted identical 9-3 records.

In the tiebreaker (Sunday night’s Raiders-Titans game), Vann predicted a combined score of 45 points. He was right on the money as the Titans edged the Raiders, 25-20. Cale (a 42-point tiebreaker) and Clark (48 points) were close while Jones (38) and Sharpe (35) rounded-out the first-place tie.

Vann missed the Dolphins/Texans, the Vikings/Packers and the Colts/Browns games. Cale did himself a favor by being only one of five entries to correctly predict the Texans upset of Miami, but he missed on the Packers, Patriots and Jaguars.

Clark also missed on his Miami and Green Bay picks. His third miss was St. Louis, who fell 23-13 at the New York Giants.

Jones was incorrect on the Cardinals, Dolphins and Packers while Sharpe missed the Dolphins, Patriots and Rams.

Twenty-four contestants finished the weekend’s slate of games at 8-4 while 36 others correctly guessed seven of the 12 winners. The remaining 47 missed six or more games.

The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald’s Football Contest will run throughout the NFL’s regular season. An official entry blank and the pairings for the upcoming weekend games will appear in each Tuesday’s edition. Contestants are required to fill in the blanks with their choice of corresponding teams beside the names of each of the 14 participating Football Contest advertisers. The entry with the most correct choices will be awarded the weekly cash prize of $50. In the event of a tie, one game will be pre-selected as the tiebreaker. There, each contestant is asked to predict what they think will be the combined score between those two teams. The contestant closest to that score will earn the tiebreaker and the prize money. In the event that two or more contestants predict the same correct or closest to score, the prize money will be equally divided.

Weekly winners will be notified by phone on where to collect their prize money.

The contest is open to anyone over the age of 18, with the exception of Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald employees and their immediate families.

All entries will become eligible for the grand prize drawing of $250 in cash. That drawing will be held one week prior to the Super Bowl.

Weekly entries can be dropped off at the Ahoskie office (corner of Main St. and Catherine Creek Rd.) of the R-C News-Herald by 5 p.m. on each Friday. Entry forms can also be mailed (postmarked by 5 p.m. on Fridays) to: Football Contest, R-C News-Herald, PO Box 1325, Ahoskie, NC, 27910.

Local merchants joining the R-C News-Herald in sponsoring this year’s Football Contest are Furniture Galleries, Dixon Cleaners, Quick Lane, Hall Auto, Piggly Wiggly, H&N Mobile Home Supply, Jernigan Oil, Pizza Inn, The Athlete’s Foot, Movie Time, Allstate Insurance, Terry’s Used Cars and The Sportsman’s Edge.