To wonder if anyone actually ever wins magazine competitions?

[cricketmum84]

I'm always doing the puzzles in Take a break, chat etc and have done for years and never won anything :(

Aibu to think that Marie H from Chorley who won £500 and Annie W from London and suchlike are made up people???

Has anyone ever won from completing the puzzles and submitting their answers?

Many years ago I used to work in publishing and one of my jobs was dealing with readers’ complaints. Many of them were to do with competition results.

Some of the ‘compers’ were really obsessive. They’d get arsey if their ‘12 words or less’ entries weren’t picked, go to extremes to prove that their ‘skill and judgment’ answers were more researched than anyone else’s, dispute the qualifications of the judges, allege bias etc etc. Some would threaten legal action.

And we were really careful!

I once won a magazine competition and when they came to take a picture of me receiving the prize the guy mentioned he was doing an article about a relevant subject and I ended up being in the article as well. It was a long time ago though.

I once featured in my local paper two weeks running after I got through to the last 35 or so people who were in the running to potentially win a huge cash prize in a national competition, before the live final knock-out round.

Week 1: "Local resident COULD win £1million!!!!!!"

Week 2: "Local resident didn't win £1million"

Talking of competitions where not many people entered, I remember as an older child, my parents and I enjoyed listening to a somewhat niche-interest late-evening local radio programme, where they sometimes had a phone-in competition for a relatively inexpensive prize (two tickets to a local amateur theatre production or a book or CD). If you called, got through and answered the question correctly, you would win it.

The DJ/presenter would ask a question and then, receiving no calls, would periodically give more and more 'clues' to the answer - eventually more or less giving it away - as it was 'apparently' proving a bit too tricky for people.

No it wasn't - it was because there was only a handful of people listening and the prize wasn't much worth having!

Greyhound22 I could be wrong but despite your name I'm getting the impression that you might be interested in horses

I dunno what gives you that idea SilverySurfer 

That was meant to have  on the end!

Oh my fun emojis are on strike!

I won a family photography session a few years back. We had to pay for the prints but the shoot was free!

Oh dear… I suspect everyone who entered the competition won this "prize".

My Mum won a holiday to Croatia a couple of years ago with Take a Break. I have also won a holiday, but it was on Virgin Radio years ago.

When I was 14 I won a years subscription to Smash Hits! Magazine.

DD has won two giant teddies and a dinosaur.

I’ve won 2 holidays abroad from magazines, however it was more than 14 years ago and although I’ve tried since I’ve had nothing.

A consultant I used to work with entered slogan competitions.

She won shit loads.

The big prizes I remember was a Magnet kitchen and the guardian ran a competition to win the infamous duck House bought by an MP for his second home.

She worked for a canal boat charity which helped wayward kids and she donated it and I think they flogged it for charity.

She said she used to attend get togethers for these slogan winners and they were all known by the competitions they won - i.e she was the duck House woman.

Re the "free" photo shoot prizes, yes definitely a scam! My sister won one a year or so ago. The pictures were absolutely extortionate. (Think 12 month payment plan levels of extortionate)

A friend of hers entered a competition run by the same company a few weeks ago. And guess what! She won the free photo shoot too!

Many eons ago I won a VHS box set of the final trilogy of Only Fools and Horses.

More recently I won an iPad mini in a radio competition.

I did also win a photo competition but it was a legit one. A local company, photoshoot plus two prints. I didn't need the prints (because I needed headshots for author promo) so we negotiated a reduced rate for a CD of half a dozen suitable shots instead. It was great.

I won a comp in a soap mag, tickets to panto and Pat Butcher socks, Danny Dyer Mug and a couple of autobiographies.

My DH won a trip to Washington on the radio as well

Pat Butcher socks 😂😂😂

My (male) cousin won a huge Christmas hamper from Take a Break, he used to do every competition in every issue though.

I won a crate of Metz one week and a copy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show the next from the Graun TV guide

I won a trip to see Hello Dolly when I was 14. I have no idea why I entered that specific competition. My mum enjoyed the night out though.

My uncle won a luxury holiday to Beijing with Olympics tickets (or was a long time ago)

I won amazon vouchers

I used to do quite well with local radio competitions (cinema tickets, new phone, £250 DIY vouchers, £500 local hifi store vouchers etc), but now they've all merged it's much more difficult, as more people enter.

I remember winning a jumper in a pony magazine when I was young, the main prize was a riding lesson with a famous horse rider. They sent me a jumper in size L, when I was about 8, it was big for my size 14 mum, let alone me!

About 20 years ago, it was part of my job to go through home decor mags and look if the company I worked.for had been mentionrd or if any of its products were featured. I used a supply not the free postcards you would get in cinemas and pubs and I would do all the giveaways - we have 6 of these giveaway, name and address to XYZ. I put them all through the company franking machine. I won loads of stuff.

A few ( lot of ) years ago now but I won a years supply of horse feed from a magazine competition
The judge/owner if the feed company said I was the only entrant who correctly answered how often a horse chews per hour of eating 😀