| | Below is a list of UK competitions whose prizes are awarded to the most skillful entrants (skill comps). With practice you can improve your skills in slogan competitions and the like, but there is nothing you can do to make
yourself luckier - hence my dislike of draws. Draws are for the slave to fortune - and that goes double for Internet draws where you have no envelopes on which to deploy lurid inks, pathetic pleas or salacious drawings in an effort to stand out from the crowd. I’ve won a veritable warehouseful of prizes plus the 7 cars, and I’ve sweated for every one. If I’d wasted my time on draws, this site would be devoted to the story of how I won a T-shirt and a voucher for £50 off my next
world cruise. Of course, if you’re prepared to enter draws by the thousand, you can narrow the odds a bit, but your time would be better spent developing skills with slogan and other tiebreaker competitions (see Be a Winner).
Mind you, I don’t recommend that you become obsessed with competitions in the way I have in the past, nor should you employ the sort of extreme (and often dishonest) tactics used by the compers in my novel. Keep comping as a hobby. But when you do it, do it like a
competitions pro rather than a dabbler.
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| | UK Slogan & Other Competitions | |
| | Swizzels Sweets Competition.
Prize: £100 in Toys R Us vouchers.
Closing: Monthly.
Task: Regsiter and take the Sweet Factory Challenge.
I include this one for reasons of nostalgia. My grandfather used to live in New Mills not far from the Swizzels factory, and when I visited him as a child I could smell the exotic aromas of the sweets cooking in the vats. When Granddad saw the faraway look in my eye he said I must be thinking great thoughts, and he was right: I was thinking about Fruit Fizzers. If you come up with a wonderful new sweet, you will be doing a service to ... well, if not man
kind, then at least boy and girl kind.
Website: www.swizzels-matlow.com |
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| | Cutest Pet Contest. This
competition comes from the International Pet Owners Club in the USA. It is open worldwide. Any kind of pet is eligible, they say. I can rememeber the days when pet rocks were all the rage. I wonder what the contest judges would make of a picture of one of those? Or a cyber pet? Entry is free, but you can only send in one entry every eight months.
Closing: At regular intervals.
Prize: $1,000.
Task: Take a photograph of your cute pet.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | | But first a word from our sponsor. Hi. I’m Michael Shenton, creator of this website and author of
Stiff Competition, the comping story that won the Peter Pook Humorous Novel Competition. People who are looking for me through search engines can
remember just about everything about the website save its name and, more distressingly for me, my name. They search for ‘Peter Pook author’, ’the man who wrote Peter Pook’, that bloke who won the cars’ and all manner of other odd things, but never
‘Michael Shenton’. The sole purpose of this site is to get my name known in the hope that one day dozens of people will buy my current novel and any others I manage to get published. So would you all kindly make a note of it. Michael Shenton. Thank you. |
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| | The Big Picture - The Telegraph Photography Competition.
Closing: Weekly.
Prize
: A Nikon Coolpix S640 digital camera worth £250.
Task: Send in one of your photos (visually appealing, original and self-explanatory).
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Rhodes Dream Wedding Competition.
Closing: 1.2.12.
Prize: A dream wedding on the island of Rhodes.
Task: Send in your love story with a photo of you and your partner.
Comp Page:
Click Here. |
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| | Sardinia Holidays Competition.
Closing: 10.2.12.
Prize: A luxury holiday to Italy.
Task: Upload your Italy photo.
Comp Page: Click Here
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| | Great British Life Wedding Competition.
Closing: 24.2.12.
Prize: A wedding package at the DoubleTree by Hilton Chester in the North-West of England, worth £6,000.
Task: Submit a photo of
you and your partner and say in up to 100 words why you would like to win the prize.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | High Life Travel Photography Competition.
Closing: 29.2.12.
Prize: A £350 Olympus camera or a chance to join a photographer from High Life, the British Airways magazine, on an assignment.
Task
: Submit your most inspiring travel photos.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Anniversary Gifts by Year Poetry Competition.
Closing: 29.2.12.
Prizes: $100, $50, $50.
Task: Submit your Happy Anniversary poem.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Kuoni Poster Competition.
Closing: 29.2.12.
Prize: A Kuoni gift card worth £2,000.
Task: Design your own Kuoni poster using the Facebook ap.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Hoover’s Best Dish Competition.
Closing: 29.2.12.
Prize: £1,200 worth of Hoover Products.
Task: Give your best family recipe.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Black Tower Dream Come True Competition.
Closing: 1.3.12.
Prize: Your dream come true to the value of up to £10,000.
Task: State your ideal dream for the perfect end of the day with your chosen partner.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| A.S.P. Kitoko Hair Therapy Competition.
Closing: 30.3.12.
Prize: A Fiat 500.
Task
: Submit a photo of a Kitoko Advanced Hair Therapy product.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| | Bergerac Wines Competition.
Closing: 31.3.12.
Prizes (3): A 3-night stay in Bergerac, France, for two people, with 2 wine tours and guided tour of the city. Return flights, meals and accommodation included.
Task: Answer multiple-choice questions and say in up to 20 words
what makes Bergerac wines special to you.
Website: Click Here. |
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| | Visit Finland Competition.
Closing: 31.3.12.
Prize: A holiday for two in Finland.
Task: Say who you would take to Wonder Land and why.
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| Cornish Trditional Cottages Photo Competition.
Closing: 1.8.12.
Prize: £200 and your photo on the front cover of the CTC 2013 brochure.
Task: Submit a photo featuring some aspect of Cornwall, suitable for the front cover of the CTC 2013 brochure.
Website: Click Here. |
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| | Yzen Caption Competition. This is a simple monthly comp you might like to take a shot at now and again, just to help sharpen your wit.
Closing: End of each month.
Prize: A bottle of bubbly.
Task: Supply a caption for the picture (changes each month).
Comp Page: Click Here. |
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| Note:
In slogan comps with a word limit, there is some disagreement over how to count contractions such as ‘can’t’. Some say they count as one word, others that they count as two. Logically, when two words have been glued together you then have only one word, but logic doesn’t always come into it as comps are often run by women. Therefore you might like to err on the safe side.
[Joke Alert: Only kidding about women, ladies. Please don’t send me
any more severed horses’ heads - there’s no room left in my freezer.] |
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