Everyone’s a WINNER
Yours writer Marion Clarke isn’t surprised to find that our readers are ahead of the field in many ways
Idon’t have a great track record when it comes to winning competitions. Although I was awarded the history prize in my last year at school, the sorry truth is that there were only two of us doing ‘A’ Level history and the other girl failed to pass the exam. I only just scraped through, but the book I won still has pride of place on my shelf.
Margaret Burke has a similar tale: “I was taking part in the Brownies’ swimming gala in a race to swim a breadth of the pool. Noone else turned up so I swam alone and won a box of handkerchiefs.”
There are some competitions you probably wouldn’t want to win. Hazel Jacklin was reluctantly persuaded by the Redcoats to enter the Miss Chi Chi (Miss Chubby, Charming and Cheerful) contest at Butlin’s: “I came second and it was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life.”
Holiday camps had a competition for every happy camper, old or young, and Gillian Critchett’s family shone: “My husband won first prize in the shove halfpenny competition, I came first in the table tennis and one of my
sons won the football penalty shootout. The icing on the cake was that my son’s prize was another week’s free stay at the camp.”
Readers who have a way with words triumphed in slogan competitions. Dorothy Thornton won £100 worth of groceries when she entered the Coop’s Food Glorious Food competition with ‘Feast your eyes on the supplies, the Co-op always satisfies’.
Helen Evans won an amazing holiday in Hollywood when she came up with this slogan for Max Factor make-up, ‘It takes the complex out of complexion and puts the perfect in perfection’. She writes: “Imagine my surprise when I won. The timing was perfect as it arrived on my birthday.”
Over the years, Margaret Justice has won more than 200 prizes which helped the household budget when money was tight: “Holidays in Majorca and France came my way, as did a trip on Concorde. I won children’s bikes and toys and household items such as TVs, a tumble dryer and barbecues.”
Susan Bell was not so lucky... “We lived in a terraced cottage with a paved courtyard at the back and my prize was a lawnmower with a year’s supply of grass seed!”
The prize for being Yours’ youngest reader must go to Evie Morrison (below) who entered her cake in the class for 12-18 year-olds at the County Show: “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a rosette beside my cake with ‘Cup Winner’ on it – and the judge had written ‘Wow’!”
Well done, that girl!
■ Next issue, meet all our lovely readers who were beauty contest winners
‘Butlins held a Miss Chi Chi (Chubby, Charming and Cheerful) contest’