Question Author
Thanks guys !
I have been completing crosswords "competitively" for about 4 years now and so far I have won two sets of books from the Telegraph, two solid silver fountain pens from the Sunday Times and now these two books from the Guardian. But nothing since last summer.
I enter most of the Saturday Telegraph ones, the Saturday Guardian and the Sunday Observer, the Sunday Times, and the i paper on a Saturday. As a Guardian reader I just won't buy the bloody Daily Mail under any circumstances !
I am fairly satisfied that almost all of my entries are correct, so its really a matter of chance that my envelopes have been picked. The two wins with the Sunday Times were rather odd in that they were 3 weeks apart in the summer of 2010. To win one of those beautiful Cross Townsend silver pens was amazing but when I had another letter 3 weeks later, I phoned them up, thinking that they had made a mistake and were sending the same letter out twice ! The pens retailed at over £300, so rather a nice prize.
I don't think there is any secret to winning, apart from getting the puzzles right in the first place and remembering to post them on time. . I don't use any brightly-coloured envelopes, to make then stand out, just bog standard cheap ones from Tesco. I never use a first class stamp unless its obsoletely necessary.
But I do address the envelopes using a fountain pen, so who knows...maybe that's a good idea !
Bring back fountain pens anyway !
Once again, thanks to everybody, especially bibs, who is always the first to reply to my cries for help.