A GAELIC footballer has scooped the £8,500 jackpot in his club’s lottery after it rolled over every two weeks for almost five years.

More than 30,000 tickets had been bought for the Oxford Eire Og club’s fortnightly lottery before half-back Michael Healy won the top prize.

The club has run the £1-a-go lottery for almost 10 years as a fundraiser.

Mr Healy, 24, of Glanville Road, Cowley, won the money after the draw at the Black Swan, in Crown Street off Cowley Road, on Sunday, August 21.

He said: “It was fantastic. I couldn’t believe it when I got the phone call. When you put money in for the lottery you don’t expect to get anything back from it.

“I was lucky as there are people there who have been playing for years and I have been playing for four months.”

Black Swan manager Ann McDonald added: “He just could not believe it.”

Mr Healy, who is a bio-medical engineer at Lombard Medical in Didcot, added: “I think I’ll go on a nice holiday for a week. But there will be no cash problems this year. I’ll also buy a few presents.”

He described the Irish game as a cross between football and rugby.

Club president William Munnelly said: “He’s a lovely lad. It was great to see someone young win. Everyone was overjoyed.”

The club got the idea for the raffle from Irish clubs and a draw takes place every two weeks at either the Black Swan or the Cowley Workers’ Social Club.

Entry costs £1 to pick four numbers between one and 30 which have to match all four numbers to win the jackpot.

About 250 people enter each time and the club takes £150, £50 is handed out in prizes, and £50 is put into the jackpot.