A comper goes to Chelsea

About ten years ago, I took a friend to the Chelsea Flower Show using tickets that I had won, and  we enjoyed the day out so much that every year I've tried to win tickets to take her again - but until this year, I'd not been lucky. However my luck changed and this year I won a pair of all-day tickets for the Thursday.

We had a lovely time there, and despite the weather we didn't get wet at all, and I managed to restrain my friend from blowing her life savings on a robotic lawn mower (she now wants me to win her one) but I know you don't want to hear about  the plants and the flowers, do you? You want to hear about the competitions!

One of the first stalls we passed  had a competition to win £100 worth of tools. I immediately started to fill in a form, but my friend said "I haven't brought a pen." I'd been prepared for that - she isn't a comper, after all - and silently handed her my spare one. After that we both scoured the stalls for competitions, but the only other one we could find to be entered there and then was on the Spear & Jackson stall, with a prize of a pair of tickets to Kew Gardens. The leaflet said it could be sent in by post, so I looked around for a handful to grab for my friends,  but they were being closely guarded by the young ladies on the stall who were handing each visitor a clipboard with just ONE form clipped to it.

There were very few competitions there, but I did bring home a (very) few that could be entered online, so here is a round up:

Trailfinders at their brilliant, Best in Show winning,  Australian garden, leaflets were being handed out with an ef for a draw to win a trip to the Australian rainforest. However you can also enter at www.trailfinders.com/chelsea and it closes on June 30th.

The Telegraph  were giving out a leaflet directing you to www.telegraph.co.uk/chelsea where you can win a trip to the Tatton Park Flower Show with three nights in Cheshire. an iPad mini and 5 x £25 iTunes voucher. This closes on June 9th.

Hillier Garden Centres  gave out a free magazine offering a prize of a pair of tickets to the Coronation Festival. Enter at www.hillier.co.uk - they don't give a closing date but say the winner will be chosen on June 10th.

And just to prove that we DID look at  the amazing plants and flowers on display, here is a little montage of some of my photos, put together with a piece of software called CollageIt that I won earlier this week.

A Moo-vellous giveaway from Chocolate Log Blog

There's no chocolate involved in the latest competition over at Chocolate Log Blog -  this time the prize it totally non-fattening! It's a set of Moo business cards. Not the long thin ones that many of us associate with Moo, but classic, standard sized ones.

Are you thinking "But I don't have a business"? Well, if you are a blogger, how about getting some cards made up for  your blog? Or if you are a comper, getting some personal ones made up? You've probably been into restaurants and bars where there is a bowl on the counter with a sign saying "Drop your business card in here to be entered into our monthly draw", and often at big shows like the Ideal Home show you can use them for entering competitions too.

 

For your chance to win. head over to the competition page and follow the steps in the Rafflecopter widget. The competition closes on June 19th. 

You are now entering a restricted zone.....

Recently several people have asked me if it is legal for a promoter to say they will only accept competition entries from a certain region. For instance, some competitions are only open to Scottish residents, and others to the circulation area of a local newspaper (if you do competitions on radio station websites, check the rules very carefully - it is quite common for them to say the competition is only open to listeners living in the BROADCAST area of the station - the fact that you can live in Cornwall and listen to a radio station based in Glasgow is beside the point!).

Well, yes, it IS legal. In fact it is legal to specify not just the geographical location, but the age and gender of entrants - it's as if the age of equal opportunities had never dawned! Why is this? Well, there are lots of reasons:

• The law. For instance in Scotland, the law about marketing alcohol is different from that in the rest of the UK. And there are laws about marketing certain items to minors which mean they can't enter most adult competitions.
• The prize. If the prize is a Club 18-30 holiday, or a Saga holiday, then only the age groups those holidays are sold to will be able to enter. If the prize is a day at a women-only spa, men may not be allowed to enter, unless the promoter intends a male winner giving it as a gift. I once saw a competition for a breast enlargement operation. Unsurprisingly, only women were allowed to enter (although I've met a few men who could usefully win a reduction....)
• The sponsor. Even if the prize isn't something that would affect whether there were any restrictions on who can enter, if the sponsor is, for instance, an alcohol company or one that sells insurance to over 50s, they may want or need to specify who can enter.
• The location. If the prize is to be collected locally, from a newspaper office or a farm shop, or if the promoter is one like a local newspaper, radio station, salon or delivery service then it is reasonable for them to only accept entries from their area.
• The  target audience. For instance, magazines such as Loaded,  People's Friend, Gay Times and Mother and Baby would have very different target audiences, and while competitions in such specific publications are usually open to all, they would be within their rights to restrict the entrants.

So all these restrictions are fine - on one condition. They must be made clear before you enter. This normally means they have to be in the terms and conditions, so it is a good idea to get into the habit of checking them. You soon get tuned in to the old familiar phrases so that anything a little out of the ordinary leaps out as you speed-read through them. If nothing is mentioned in the entry details or rules, and then after winning something you are told, "I'm sorry, we can't award you the prize because you are female and over 50" then you have valid grounds for complaint.

Just asking your sex and age group on the entry form isn't enough - that is usually done just to help them get feedback and target future promotions, or to sort your data for selling on if you haven't opted out of that. Giving your real (ish) age won't - or at least SHOULD'T - affect your chance of winning unless an age group for entrants has been clearly stated, in which case  your entry won't be accepted.

Are all these restrictions a bad thing then? Not necessarily. Why? Because the more restrictions there are, the fewer people are able to enter. And the fewer people who enter, the better YOUR chances are, as long as you fit the entry criteria. Just by specifying men only or women only, half of your potential opposition has been wiped out at a stroke!

The moral of all this is to check for restrictions - if you don't qualify to enter, then it isn't worth trying, but if you DO qualify, then enter that restricted zone, it could give you a great chance of a win.

Another chance to win cupcakes and cookies for a Rockin' Dad

Mama Jewels are looking for the Dad of the Month. And to encourage you to nominate a Dad, they are giving you a chance to win a box of hand made cupcakes and cookies.

Enter through their Facebook page, using the Rafflecopter form to tell them why your man rocks and to email them a photo of him with the kids. You have until June 15th to submit your entry.

Win a Tablet!

The lovely blog A Slice of Lemon's Cake and DGM have got together to give you a chance to win a DGM T-909 Android Tablet. For your chance to win, head over to the competition page and follow the steps, leaving a comment for each one as you complete it. You can get extra entries for daily tweets, too.

The competition will close when DGM reaches 2,200 followers on Twitter, so hurry, as when word gets out about this super prize they'll soon reach that figure!

My TV appearances - postponed

A short while ago, I told you that I was going to be featured, talking about comping, on two episodes of the TV series "Something for Nothing", scheduled to be shown this Wednesday, May 22nd, and next. However there was no sign of them in any of the online and printed TV guides this week so I contacted the production company, who say they have been put back to a yet-to-be-specified date in July. I will let you all know as soon as I have any further info - in the meantime, cancel any recordings you have set!

Win a desk fan worth over £250!

Is it going to be a long hot summer? I think after this miserable spring (it's nearly the end of May and feels more like March) we all deserve one! But because hot weather seems to appear out of the blue, we never seem to be prepared for it. We just don't get enough hot days for us to have air-conditioned homes, so when it's lovely and hot  and sunny, being indoors whether to work or to sleep can be sticky and uncomfortable.

But Your Holiday TV have the answer - they are giving away a super-stylish Hunter desk fan worth over £250. The classic retro styling and super-quiet performance mean you can use it anywhere in the home. To enter the competition, go to their home page and follow the Competition link at the top of the page. Answer the question - you'll find the answer in the text - and add your name and address in the answer box  too.

You can enter once per person and the competition closes on June 14th.