DT 25900 I'm a winner!

[ikarus]

Not a question but just to let you know that I received my fountain pen prize from the DT yesterday as a winner of last Saturday's cryptic.

Three years of doing the cryptic every day and religiously sending in my entry every Saturday and at last mine gets drawn out of the bag.

Does anyone have any idea how many entries are received every week?

I gave up doing the GK about a year ago as I got bored with all the clues about Greek and Roman gods

[JMR27]

Well done! a nice surprise:o)

[Iolanthe]

Well done! It proves it's worth persevering.

[octogenarian]

Good for you ikarus

[MacSmith]

Excellent - always nice to hear of an ABer winning! Well done.

[BigDave44]

Firstly, well done.

I have written to the Telegraph puzzles editor asking how many entries they receive for each of the prize draws, along with questions about eligibility of photocopies, online printouts, pencil and Tippex. I advised him that I would like to publish his answer, and he has replied twice to say he "wants to give me a proper answer". I hope to have this next week and should it be forthcoming, I will publish it on the blog, and post a link to it here on AB.

[Bethnesa]

Congratulations Ikarus. About 50 years ago my consolation prize for the Telegraph crossword was a double pack of playing cards. Since then nothing more from the telegraph but various prizes from other papers including once, a bottle of champagne.

[Rollo]

First, well done on winning.

I have been doing the Saturday Telegraph Cryptic for years, and years, and I have never won anything. But I have won at least six Telegraph pens over the years via the EV and GK Sunday Crosswords.

Good luck with getting any sort of answer, let alone a "proper" one. Getting an answer from the Telegraph is like pulling hens teeth!

If you subscribe to the Telegraph online puzzle site you can print out the Saturday Cryptic and send it in as an entry. I asked them if this was the same for the Sunday Cryptic and GK, but I was eventually (after having sent the question twice more) told that you cannot enter these puzzles other than using the version printed in the paper. When I asked "Why not?" I never got a reply.

Not to worry though - I don't want any more pens!

[BigDave44]

Rollo

What triggered my email to Phil McNeill was when they printed last Sunday's EV on the back of the GK crossword. I am hopeful of a reply, so fingers crossed!

I imagine that it's the query over numbers of entries that is giving him the most grief; one wonders if they actually count them before putting them in the bin.

[Rollo]

I would not be surprised if they don't employ somebody to "harvest" all of the names and addresses, so they can send out junk mail to them.

[Chris&Wendy]

when i won the sat tel gk xword it was the works of the world to get the �200 cheque from them. they first tried to tell me they had no record of me being named as a winner!

[ladyalex]

Well done IKARUS. Congratulations. :-))

[Alibobs]

Well done you, it is my life's ambition to win a prize in the DT cryptic comp, maybe this week......

[novalis]

Well done!

[Paul21455]

For what it's worth, and in response to earlier responses, I can claim 1 STGK win (�200 and a Whitaker's almanac) and 2 runners-up prizes of a pocket edition. Added to that, I have 1 Telegraph Pen from the Sunday edition GK. No matter how I try, I can't seem to get a sniff on the Saturday Cryptic.

Some years ago, I watched a report on TV, concerning the selection of winning entries. It was said that there are in the region of 30,000 entries to the STGK, and that winners were selected by tipping the sackful of entries down a flight of stairs, and that those which landed on a predetermined step were chosen. The first correct entry opened from those lucky enough to land in the right place, was the winner !!

Sounds about right to me. Well done on your win.