AHOSKIE – Even the tiebreaker failed to decide Week #15 of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald’s Football Contest.

For only the second time in the three-year history of the contest, two individuals emerged as winners as Hugh Battle of Kelford and Adrian Mitchell of Murfreesboro both posted outstanding 13-1 records and both predicted a precise 40 points in the tiebreaker (Jacksonville at New England, a game won 27-13 by the Patriots).

Since there is no provision in the official rules to break a stalemate within the tiebreaker, the men will split the $50 prize money. Each will receive $25.

Battle’s lone miss was the Vikings 13-10 loss at Chicago while Mitchell was wrong with his choice of Baltimore over Oakland (the Raiders won, 20-12).

Five others also missed just one game, but were eliminated due to the tiebreaker. They were Douglas Clark of Lewiston (a tiebreaker guess of 46 points), Roy Taylor of Cofield (37), Howard Hill of Powellsville (38), McDonald Harrell Jr. of Ahoskie (38) and Richard Thompson of Ahoskie (31).

Seventeen others finished with 12-2 records.

The week drew a total of 151 entries.

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.