h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have you ever won a competition? I won a doll at school once. Which was sad because I wanted to win the cowboy set. I also won a nice shiny Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, at h2g2, back in the days when I was Researcher U15551, I also won a bottle of campari, but it had been sent in an envelope, Do'h, So...

Your turn, what have you won?

I once won second prize in a beauty contest when playing Monopoly, but that doesn't really count does it?

I once won a bike, as a little kid... had t' write about what I wanted a bike for, I seem t' remember I wrote about getting exercise or something but my mum insists I wrote that I was going t' give it to my little brother, who didn't have a bike at the time...

Other than that... err, I was on the winning team at my primary's school's annual quiz, once, I won a whole easter-egg...

*shrug* I'm sure someone can do better than that

When I was younger I used to go to 'Brownies'. They launched a comption to design a poster advertising our Brownie Pack. My poster won in our Brownie Pack and I also won out of all the Packs in Salford. I recieved lots of Brownie stuff like pens, stickers and note pads. I was quite chuffed!

Also, my claim to fame is when I was about eight or nine years old, I wrote a poem about witches and sent it to the children's Ceefax page on channel 4 which doesn't exist anymore. Well, it does but it isn't as good. They published my poem on the TV and I won a story book all about witches! So I'm a published author!

That's cool!

Is there anyone out there who knows whether someone has ever won the Reader's Digest prize draw by sending their reply slip to the "NO" department.

I wrote a short story about dinosaurs when I was at primary school and won through to the county final. I recieved a badge for my hard work which had "no dinosaurs" logo on it (cartoon dino with a red slash across).
I also won a Blue Peter competition runner-up badge for a photo caption around the same time, which was just a naff little button, rather than a snazzy BP badge.
I no longer enter competitions as I have enough badges of my own already.

Hi Peta,

You won a doll, think yourself lucky. To this date I have only ever won two prizes in my life. The first of which holds a simalar story to your own. I was desprate to win this robot, in a fire stations raffle. I did win something, as always luck was their but not quite what I anticipated. I was the lucky winner of a complete set of knitted dolls cloths, including knitted boots. I imagine the disapointment you felt as you recived your doll was similar to mine. If only I had a doll to dress. I did try putting the cloths on my action man, but I felt that I could not live with the embracement of what would have been said in the play ground if news got out that I dressed my action man in a PINK KNITTED DRESS with matching hat & boots. At least if I had won a doll I could have used it as somthing for action man to blow up. My second prize to this date was a bottle of whiskey which may seem like a good prize. As I was only 7 years old at the time I did'nt know the true properties of this fine bevrage. So I sold it to a man over the road he gave me in return a pack of 4 mars bars. At the time I thought this was a good deal I do now only see the error on my behalf well we all learn the hard way. I suppose we should all just be greatful for what we have won...?..

I won a merit prize in a 'Science in Print Award 1997' competition run by the National Physics Laboratory. I wrote an essay entitled 'Super!' which compared and contrasted superconductivity and superfluidity. (Would you believe me if I said I was 17 at the time?) My prize was £50, a framed certificate and my entry printed with all the other winning entries (possibly in a Physics journal somewhere?) There was also a posh awards ceremony at the NPL, which I had to miss. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life. What would have happened to me if I'd have been able to hob-nob with the top brass in the UK physics world? Maybe I wouldn't be here in Berlin as an Electronic Engineering student...

Actually, does anyone fancy doing a bit of research on the following topic: "Missed Opportunities That Could Have Changed My Life"? Could be a worthwhile article...

-- Nurgling

The only competition that I can remember winning aside from science fairs and the like (and I usually liked the prizes I got for those, mostly books), was during my sophmore year in high school. For homecoming, the homeroom classes could decorate their door. The theme was "Sink the Pirates", and our door was really cool. We had a treasure chest that we put christmas lights in it to make it glow (my freind and I made that) and we also had a toy parrot that you could record messages and have it play them back, so during the contest, we had it saying "sink the pirates". Duh. Anyway, we won. I don't remember exaclty what we won, probably a pizza party or something, but something else really made me angry. In the yearbook for that year, they had a peice about the door contest. It had a picture of some dumb cheerleader in front of a decorated door, but it wasn't ours! In print, they said we won, but still, it wasn't our door. I have always been bitter about that.