A WORLD Cup party will go with a swing for one family who have won £48,000 in the Daily Echo's Find the Ball Competition. Once the World Cup is over they hope to use the money to hotfoot it to Australia at Christmas in time for the Ashes series. John Allen, 49, was astonished to learn of his win.

He plans to spend the money on a new car for his son's 18th birthday, a family trip Down Under, home improvements and paying off the mortgage early. For John's children Thomas, 17, Lizzy, 16 and James, 10 and there will be plenty of treats. "When the Echo told me I had won, apart from trying to calm my wife Margaret down, my heart was fluttering. I couldn't believe we'd won £48,000 I had to sit down,"said John.

He added: "We'll celebrate properly on Saturday with a World Cup party."

John, who works as a project management lecturer, has entered Find the Ball almost every week for the past decade but this is his first big win.

With the family together last week for half-term, they all had a say on where they thought the ball could be.

They're looking forward to seeing whose guess was closest before sharing out the winnings.

Find the Ball is published in five Newsquest titles every week and last year more than £230,000 was paid out in prize money.

The jackpot for this week's competition, which starts tomorrow now stands at £10,000 with a £1,000 runner up prize.