Has anyone ever....

In 1965 I won a competition in a local paper to sit with a small group of people behind The Beatles whilst they were recording a TV programme.

When my children were just the right age to appreciate Pantomime I won tickets to the London Palladium to see Jack and the Beanstalk with Frankie Howerd and Dora Bryan.
It was marvellous. Train tickets were included in the prize, so it was a great day out.
Apart from that, I won £5 for a poem which was published in
Woman magazine.

As people upthread said, it was "easier" when it was slogans.
Most of our wins were from slogans.
The bed was sold and paid for our move to America.
I still have some of our prizes...

Just remembered some others:
Board games
Videos
Fancy hampers
Garden tools - including a strimmer (which was novel then and lasted for years).
High street vouchers.

I actually spotted, and entered, a rare slogan competition last month. The prize was £5000 of Aldi vouchers. Composing a rhyme about why I love Aldi brought back memories, but sadly I didn’t win.

It used to be so exciting when a long white envelope dropped on the mat telling you you’d won a prize.

I won a weeks holiday to Turkey in a 4 star hotel with a magazine crossword competition and a trip to Dublin for a wine tasting through another magazine. I was lucky for a time that I also won several smaller prizes too. Nothing much lately though.

I won a Liz Earle product many moons ago with a draw in the Nursing Standard. I still remember how nice it was to get it in the post. I have bought her products off and on ever since.

mae13 it was the Blue Peter debacle that prompted the question. The word is scam these days, but it amounts to the same thing.
BlueBelle that sounds just like my sort of luck too!!
mum2three that made me laugh!
Allsorts oh definitely not a skill
Franbern loved the silent car story
Astitchintime

But some of you have won so much, so perhaps the competitions are genuine after all.

I will probably keep on entering because I enjoy solving puzzles. But I am not holding my breath for a win! Good luck to everyone, I hope you win what you love and love what you win!

Mine have been cash wins! £50 in our church 200 club in 1980 ( just before son 3 was born), £1000 ‘bonus’ payment at work, but because it was classed as wages it was taxed, so I got £666. Then a few years ago £500 at our school Christmas fete.

When I was in my early teens I won a very large photo of Adam Faith, my Dad had it framed for me which I hung on my bedroom wall. I still have it but not on my bedroom wall! It was with a Teenage magazine, I think it was called Valentine.

When my daughter was about 12 we went to a Street Fayre. A lady was just setting up her stall and daughter wanted a go. There was a massive bag with literally thousands of keys. You chose one then tried it in the locked safe.

Daughter put her hand in, swirled the keys around and the woman shook the bag. The key she chose opened the safe! She won 3 bottles of wine and a cash prize.

We all had a good laugh and the stallholder said she could not believe the prize went at the first attempt.

Only small raffle prizes and a couple of years ago I entered a draw on Gransnet and won £100 worth of wool. Kept me knitting for a while!

Grandma70s

I won a teddy bear once, but I can’t remember the circumstances. I was grown up. It must have been some sort of raffle. I don’t normally do competitions.

I won a teddy bear at a Barnardo's fundraiser and called him Barney. The DGC are allowed to borrow him but can't take him home - he's mine!
A set of books, thank you Gransnet
A lovely pencil sketch of flowers
DD won a children's colouring competition years ago and won a Sony Walkman which she kept for years.

Nothing for years and often competitions can be scams these days or try to get you to subscribe which means they have your bank or credit card details.

I have won a television composition twice! several months apart.. a few years ago. £5000 then £4000. not much back then but very welcome.. it was 'the Real Deal show

I once won a radio shaped like an orange. Had it in the kitchen for years and used it daily.

When I was sixteen I won the Guess How Many Peas in the Jar. My prize was a box of groceries. I was disgusted.

Christmas 1974. I was pregnant, already had a 3 year old and the mortgage was killing us. I won the playgroup Christmas hamper. I was so excited and when someone with a car offered to drop it off I was so scared of losing it I thanked them but said I was fine, walked home and got the pram to get it home. I don't think anything could beat how I felt that day.

I once won an LP from a local radio programme - it was so easy I think I must have been the only one who entered 😄

In a local raffle I won one of those toilet roll cover knitted dolls with a big skirt - knitted by my gran 😄

I won a cooked chicken from the inside market near where we lived many moons ago in Lancashire. It was a tombola win.
Haven’t won anything since.

I never enter competitions and rarely win on a raffle but some years ago I was at a macmillan fundraiser at a local hotel and made a large donation to their raffle. The woman selling the tickets commented and I told her that my daughter had been diagnosed with cancer.
Later that afternoon she rang me and said I had won a prize, which was a meal at the hotel. It was a lovely surprise and a very nice meal.
It was only later that I wondered if it had been fixed.

In which case, no I don’t win competitions.

One of my letters was "Letter of the week" in the Radio Times. I won a radio.

I have won quite a few things but I was entering competitions every day for a few hours. Gave up during lockdown as everyone was doing it and the chance of winning got really low. There are websites which help you find the competitions.

I was the lucky winner of a bottle of "House of Commons whisky" donated for a raffle by one of our M Ps. It seemed too precious to just drink it so a couple of years later I donated it (for a( "roll a £ coin at a bottle, nearest coin wins the bottle). It raised near £100 and was won by ........ My Daughter [GRIN}

Many years ago I was one of the 6 Scottish Grannies who was recruited by Gransnet to test the new Freesat technology. We had to report our experience via various questionnaires and allowed to keep it thereafter. Still working perfectly and must have saved me a small fortune over the years as I have never had to sign up and pay for another service.

In 1987 I won a small portable tv/video in my firm's Christmas raffle, and I seem to recall winning a Muffin the Mule puppet via a children's magazine competition when I was about 8.

An ex-boyfriend of mine used to spend a fortune on various commodities in order to enter competitions on the labels, he never won a thing.

Very unusually, , I once won several raffle prizes within about 15 minutes, at a Christmas do thrown by my mother’s care home. I felt really guilty at walking off with so much, especially since one prize was a big M&S hamper full of goodies, when I’d already bought or ordered more than enough for us and guests.

A day or so later (it was already close to Christmas) I phoned the local Sally Army, to ask whether they’d like it. Someone came within half an hour to collect it!