Statistics

[MrGee]

Has anyone ever discovered the odds against winning the DT General Knowledge crossword or the Monday Herculis crossword ?

[Rollo]

That must depend on how many correct entries there are for each such crossword.

No doubt that varies week by week.

But, in gereral I would say the odds against winning any particular one are "largish".

[mjd]

i may be wrong but I don't think that the odds depend upon the number of correct answers. I don't imagine for one moment that the Telegraph employ someone to check each entry for correctness and then select one winner from all of the correct ones. I think that they would select an entry then check it for correctness & if incorrect draw another etc.

So I think that the odds against are more likely to reflect how many entries there are each week & not how many correct ones there are.

[MrGee]

Thanks mjd, I think you are probably right but I would still like to know roughly how many of each crossword are received by the DT each week. Maybe someone has already asked DT the question ?

[Rollo]

Assuming that only a correct entry can win then the odds against winning, if you have sent in a correct solution, must depend on the number of correct entries, rather than the total number of entries.

Of course they don't open all of the entries. They open an entry and if it is correct it wins, if it has an error it is discarded. They go on doing that until they have found the required number of winners.

Presumably they then discard all the remaining unopened entries - unless they want to "harvest" all of the names and addresses to sell to direct marketing companies, which I would not put past them.