JtS wrote:

QUOTE:
Posted on here before but I won what was supposed to be a fancy corkscrew on "Name that Tone" on TalkSport, however instead I received a book about Spike Milligan, inside was written

"To Mark, All the best, Tony Cascarino"

I hope your name is Mark, or thats a really shit prize.

I have a friend who used to work on the entertainment desk at the Scottish Daily Mirror. He was involved in the running of quite a few competitions in his time there - album giveaways, tickets, that sort of thing - and told me that they virtually never get more than a single-figured amount of people entering them.

So I entered a T in the Park competition they were running and won a year's supply of Tennent's Lager. Which was good, except that Tennent's Lager is shit. At the time I was a student, though, and was over the fucking moon.

I've won quite a few poker tournaments, if that counts.

At primary school, I won a "Guess The Name Of The Teddy Bear" competition. The prize was a teddy bear called Stanley. I had to go up and collect my winnings in front of the whole school at an end-of-term assembly and ended up tripping over my feet en route, falling onto half a dozen "rising fives" sat in the first two rows and having hundreds of kids and dozens of teachers rip the piss out of me.

It was a few seconds later that I decided that winning competitions just wasn't worth the hassle and have remained resolutely empty-handed ever since.

Hofzinser wrote:

QUOTE:
I have a friend who used to work on the entertainment desk at the Scottish Daily Mirror. He was involved in the running of quite a few competitions in his time there - album giveaways, tickets, that sort of thing - and told me that they virtually never get more than a single-figured amount of people entering them.

A friend of mine used to work for the Daily Sport, doing all the computer game/film reviews - apparently they had a cupboard full of unclaimed/unwon/uncared for competition prizes, like half a dozen PS2s, tons of untouched games and DVDs... all of which he slowly migrated to the local Cash Converter.

how much is a years supply?

For andy fordham it would have been 30*365 cans...

It was 360 cans - so just under one a day. More pertinently, it worked out at exactly 15 slabs.

Absolutely true story/stories: I don't win much of anything, but when I do, I know I'm going to win it about ten seconds before I do.

First time, I went to a 'traveling around Europe' seminar put on by one of those places that sells backpacks and travel guides to nascent globetrotters. They did door prizes, and drew three or four prizes before coming to an under-clothes money belt thing. I distinctly remember thinking "Ah, crap, I've already bought one" and being fully stood up before they'd even finished reading the number. I just said "I've already got one. May as well re-draw for it" and then sat back down before I had a good think about why I'd been stood up so early in the first place.

Second time, it was for a popcorn bowl full of movies and microwave popcorn at a stag and doe party. As they held it up before drawing, I turned to my wife and said "Oh...I've won that" and then they read my number. Another woman at the table turned to my wife and said "How does he do that?" and she said "He doesn't....really..."

And I can't. But it's happened twice.

Those of you with long(ish) memories will remember that I won an all expenses paid trip to Japan in 2006 to the FIFA World Club Championships, with full press access. I spent most of the week drunk and making a bit of a fool of myself at press conferences "So then, Ronaldinho, I've heard that Internacional supporters have a song that involves you being called "a son of a bitch" in six different ways - how do you feel about that?".

It was all a bit of a strange thing, really. There were two rounds to it. The first was a vote (for which I fully utilised the good nature of the OTF community), and the second was judged by, well, people that I didn't really know. I thought the whole thing was a scam until I turned up at Heathrow and found that the e-tickets that I'd been sent were genuine, and not fakes.

I don't, in all honesty, think that I was what they were looking for. My proudest moments of the week were:

a. The aforementioned Ronaldinho question.

b. Challenging myself to walking the three or four miles from my hotel to the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo with only a map in Japanese, and doing it without having to ask anyone for directions.

c. Persuading three Korean businessmen to support Fulham against Liverpool whilst watching a live match in a bar in Roppongi when they had no idea who was playing (Liverpool won 4-0).

d. Shouting, "DIDN'T YOU USED TO BE ANGLIA TELEVISION'S GERRY HARRISON?" at the aforementioned great man in the media area of the International Stadium in Yokohama and being thrilled to bits when he engaged me in a brief conversation about the merits of Trevor Whymark and John Deehan) rather than calling for security (which he should really have done).

So, yeah, the only competition I've ever won, and it was in no small part thanks to you people. I will be eternally grateful for that.

QUOTE:
I spent most of the week drunk and making a bit of a fool of myself at press conferences "So then, Ronaldinho, I've heard that Internacional supporters have a song that involves you being called "a son of a bitch" in six different ways - how do you feel about that?".

A fool? No, my friend. Every hack at the press conference was thinking: "Fuck, I wish I had the guts to ask a question like that." You were their hero, not a fool.

But what did Ronaldinho say?

I won second prize in a Beardhammer contest - £5.00 off the purchase price of Space Hulk. But when I went to buy it they didn't have it, so I bought Adeptus Titanicus instead. Having played both, the latter was the far better game. Knock-off Mechwarrior beats knock-off Aliens in my roleplaying gamebook.

<rolls D10, makes saving throw and exits in cloud of mystic smoke>

Edit: Oh yes, I also won the prep school General Knowledge quiz three years in a row from the ages of 8-10.

QUOTE:
But what did Ronaldinho say?

He mumbled something about "having conditioned himself to blot out the noise of the crowd", through an interpreter.

I was much more taken with Fernandao, who scored the winning goal in the final for Internacional. He came through the mixed zone after the final and stopped to talk to me, even though I was just standing there staring off into space and can't speak any Portuguese. A crowd soon descended on it, and he launched off on one for such a long time that the assembled crowd of hacks started to drift away leaving just me and the Brazilian guy that I was with that was interpreting for me. I didn't ask him any questions, and I don't think anyone else did. It was just a five minute long monologue.

I won a scarf in a Junior Blues raffle at the age of six, or maybe seven. Big Joe Corrigan picked my number out the box, I chose the scarf from the selection of items on the table, and Mick Channon himself wrapped it round my neck for me.

Beat that.

Me and a mate won a fortnight's all expenses paid holiday in the Maldives on a tv quiz show on S4C (Welsh language Channel 4).

To win the holiday we had to win through three rounds of what can only be described as 3D noughts and crosses - answer correctly and place your marker.

We also won a variety of other prizes along the way which included HMV vouchers, cameras, a weekend break in the UK, golf lessons ...

It's the only thing I've ever won though!

I won a box set of the Dark is Rising series by Helen Cooper (Over Sea, Under Stone and sequels)in a Junior Library quiz.

But nothing else in the last 27 years.

Oh, if we're counting quizzes, no quiz team I've been on has ever come lower than second.