Kids’ names key to big win

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Publication title: Te Awamutu Courier

The goal was to hit the five-second mark exactly. Starting at $5000, the prizemoney kept increasing as listeners tried and failed to secure the winnings. However, eventually one ZM listener got lucky

Jayne, 35, who lives in Ōhaupō in Waikato and works in the transport industry, hit the jackpot last week.

She’d tried ringing a couple of times over the past few weeks, and last Monday morning — while baking muffins — she looked at the time and thought she should try again. “They answered,” she said.

“I thought I was just one of the back-up callers.”

Playing was pretty simple, she said. Jayne hit the 5.00s mark dead on, to the delight of hosts Fletcher, Smith and Sproull and producer Jared Pickstock. They crew was intrigued by her strategy, with Jayne deploying one curious (and effective) trick to mark time.

“My partner and I joked that if you got through, you wouldn’t be able to count properly because of the slight delay,” Jayne told the NZ Herald.

“I figured when you’re on the phone to them you’d be feeling under pressure and go way too fast, so I thought what else could I use?”

She didn’t use a stopwatch or numerical counting. “I thought, the kids’ names...