A SHOCKED Peter Jaques was convinced someone was playing a practical joke when the Daily Echo contacted him to say he had won the newspaper's Find the Ball jackpot.

The £24,000 windfall was a late birthday present for the commercial illustrator who had celebrated his 46th birthday on Wednesday.

He has been playing Find the Ball for six or seven years, collecting several £15 prizes dur-ing that time.

Mr Jaques is planning to spend some of the cash on his business, which he runs from his home in Stourvale Gardens, Chandler's Ford.

He said: "I've been trying the get the landscape painting side going with my own gallery for ages. It will help with that. The funny thing is I've been trying to borrow money to buy computers for the busi-ness recently. Now I can go out and get what I want."

No doubt his wife Jackie and their three sons - Duncan, 17, Andrew, 14, and Robin, 12 - will be having a few ideas too.

Don't miss tomorrow's Daily Echo for your chance to win a Find the Ball jackpot prize of £10,000 and runner-up prize of £1,000.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.