Harlow man's dreams come true after winning a £38k Mercedes {{favouriteCount}}

A Harlow IT worker ‘dream's came true’ earlier this week when won a £38,000 Mercedes.

Ralph Talabi, 54, had thought that an Amazon delivery was at the door yesterday morning (November 7) but instead he was greeted by Best of the Best's (BOTB) Christian Williams with the keys to the brand new car.

The £37,645 Mercedes C250d AMG Line is the first thing that the 54-year-old had won in his entire life and he was understandably in shock after being given the keys.

He said: “I’m the luckiest man alive. I love playing this competition every week and have been playing since about 2009. It’s a real dream come true.

“The door went this morning and I just thought it was an Amazon delivery, it was only when I opened the door and noticed then BOTB on the jacket that I thought I could have won something special.

“I’d played for a few different cars that week so I had no idea what was under the sheet. I’m so delighted it was the Mercedes, I love it.”

Mr Talabi had been playing the high stakes spot the ball competition for five or six years before his first win, but even on the morning of his win it wasn’t plain sailing for him or the BOTB team.

The team from BOTB had been in contact with Mr Talabi’s daughter the day before to find his address but she had only been willing to give them a postcode, meaning they were sent ‘on a wild goose chase’ in their attempts to find the winner.

But when they did finally track him down his reaction was one for the ages, asking “are you kidding me? Are you serious? I won something?”

Mr Willams, who regularly delivers these cars for BOTB, described the IT worker after handing the car over as “one of the nicest guys I think I’ve ever met in my life.”

He added: “Handing people the keys to their dream car is a real privilege.

“Everyone who plays BOTB crosses their fingers that they’ll get the knock on the door on Tuesday and today it was Ralph’s turn.

“He’s been playing for a few years so it’s nice to see Ralph finally get his reward.”

To win the competition players have to choose where they believe the ball is in a football picture, a team of experts including former professional footballers including Sol Campbell then choose where they think the ball is, and the nearest to the experts’ selection wins.

Speaking to BOTB, Mr Talabi added: “I played in the airport a while back, then I played in Stratford for a while.

“Then last week I got an email from you that said the results are in, and I thought let me just play and I played, and I just said, well, cross fingers, as I don’t think anyone can win those things.”

Back to Homepage 22 Nov 2021