UKC

I have won twice, and for some reason have not entered for awhile, most odd.

I am sure people must have won more than twice, how many have you won?

I bite every single time but have won the equal least, so much so that I can't but help think they're fixed.

No, not a fix, like I say I have won twice, and a climbing partner, I am sure has won 3 times. Maybe your time is yet to come.

Ps, Never met Alan, but I have communicated with him, and I would reckon he is straight as a die. 

I'd like to think so, but I'm wondering whether it might just be quicker if you could see a way to slipping me one of your special envelopes. Do I need to send you one of mine first?

I enter most of them, won just the one but it was the best prize I've ever seen offered so can't complain.

Good to see the prizes are awarded fairly then. What have you won?

A Swiss Army Knife with a Gazillion blades and a pair of bouldering keks, which I cut rather a dash in.

(PS. For transparency, I should mention I once took part in a midge poetry competition on here under a pseudonym and won a bee-keeper's hat, but as I see it this doesn't really count as 1. everyone got a prize because the organisers completely cocked it up and this was by way of a 'Sorry!', and 2. I was up all night polishing the rhyming scheme, scansion and all the rest, so it wasn't simply a case of making a wild guess as to how many ounces of freerange goose are in the latest Mountain Ferragamo or North Dior gilet.)

Twice, lightweight wind shirt and approach shoes.

What you need is access via the VIP FastComp lane. That way you get awarded prizes without having entered, before details of the comp emerge........it appears Uncle Derek could lobby on your behalf......

They're definitely not fixed.

I'd be genuinely curious as to what agenda we'd have to ever want to fix them, as there's no real benefit to us either way as to who wins and who doesn't - the result is inconsequential.

If we did fix things I'd have hoped for a few more backhanders from the likes of Uncle Derek and Pedro 50 😅

Dunno... but I'm hoping to win that Rab jacket, I need an decent insulated jacket and that looks an excellent one (although I'm always nervous of down+damp, but the dwr type treatments seem much better these days)

If I win I'll conclude its fair

But if someone else does, I'll know for sure the system is rigged against me

Thanks, but discussions are already underway. At a sensitive stage at the mo, so can't say more!

Entered 291 competitions. Won ZERO.

Is there a way to see how many you’ve entered?

I have won once. Well, I say me... me forcing my partner to enter who actually who rarely goes on UKC. It was when the Wide Boyz were doing their 'crack school' and she won a #1 friend. Very useful. But now that she's won something I only enter myself these days.

I am very selective though, as I'd hate if my fateful day was to win a set of nikwax products.

I've won twice - a Rab jacket and tickets to ShAFF. Gotta be in it to win it....

I've only won once - a Petzl headtorch in 2008 or 2009. I nearly missed out as I deleted the email, thinking it was spam, and treated the phonecall about it in the same way.

But how many did you answer correctly? That's the number you really need.

Good plan. I usually 'have a go' at these competition, and if I'm feeling lucky I'll also enter my wife.

Too much information mate...

Yes, go down to the bottom of the competitions page and it tells you.

One of the unexpected 'benefits' of going straight into the forums with my bookmark. I didn't even realise there was a competitions page! 

Won twice, a bouldering mat and a gas stove. 

The competitions are always (I think?) announced on the forums - you must have blanked a fair few of those threads to never have noticed they were there too.  (eg: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/ukc/win_a_pair_of_unparallel_up_moccs-754... )

To be honest, I usually don't glance to the right of the threads to see what's being advertised. I guess that's where the comps are placed. I will be more attentive in future

I'll serve 'em up, you hit 'em home

They're not advertised with the ads on the right hand side, I mean they get their own forum thread with the word "COMPETITION" (in capitals, like that) at the start of the thread title. 

They're in the 'UKC' sub-forum, dunno, maybe you wouldn't see some of them if you log in through UKH instead?  (If you have a scan down, there are a bunch of them here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/ukc/ )

150/0 for me, hopefully in 150 more I will have won more than you!

Thanks Jon, 56 since 2016 but pretty sure I entered quite few before then.

I do always feel guilty when I leave the “add me to the mailing list” checkbox unchecked so maybe this is a bit of karmic payback (or part of the algorithm!)

Entered 473. Won zero. Anyone beat that ratio?

entered 498, won zero, but as mentioned above, the missus won one on my insistence. 

Nope, I always have left unchecked. I did wonder if it would impact my chances of wining, but not so.

Entered 556 and not a sossij to show for it.  Plenty of optimism though.

Between me and mrs w I think we are into double figures now.

Twice if you include the draw from completing the survey, that was a petzl helmet, the other was mountain equipment firelite sleeping bag 

Just to allay your fears, and anyone else's, there's no connection between the tickbox and competition winner - they're completely separate. 

Good effort.

Just skimming this thread - I'm impressed by the prizes!  (I just Googled 'Mountain Equipment Firelite sleeping bag'...wow, that's quite a prize)

I've won twice, rock boots and an Arc'teryx jacket, from 439 entries. 

0/240. I stopped bothering when it dawned on me that I was trying to find answers in articles and videos for things I didn't want or need. If I wanted or needed them then I would have bought them. 

380, not a sniff. Soldier on!

I've won twice, despite not entering that many, it does happen. 

I think some people just don’t notice the competitions. There was one recently to win a “Scottish Wild Country Backpacking” book and the usual suspects didn’t even turn up to complain about the word “wild” in the book’s title. 

What did you get?

I won a book about 20 years ago in an early comp, and download access to a couple of mini guides a few years later than that - but I think that was coming third in a writing competition, rather than prize draw.

Maybe if there is an uplift in entries, Uncle Alan will send me a special prize, for bringing comps to peoples attention

Not won anything yet. ☹️

A weekend for 2 in Chamonix, flights, transfers, accomodation, lift passes, ski hire and some freebies for good measure.

C'mon mate, thats pretty weak lobbying there.......you need to follow the example of that nice lady with the PPE.........shy bairns get nowt, as they say in these parts.

that IS a good prize!

How do you find out how many you've entered? I've been doing them for probably 20-ish years and won precisely the square root of bugger all. 

326 entered, prizes zero..........

Lol, have another prize for that post!

You get more gear to test than you can shake a stick at, we're not taking any whinging from you!

Look at the bottom of the competitions page.

Ive entered 216 and won twice! Jacket and guide book

Aah, thanks.  That tells me I've only entered 68 since Sept. 2015, which doesn't sound right. Confused.com!

417. Won a calendar about 7 years ago.

I've entered 512 since Oct 2015 and won once, fleece jacket quite near the beginning of that 512. Really feel it's time I won again but no such luck.

To Uncle Alan, please can we have some stats on number of comp entries etc.

I've entered 186 apparently. Quite a while ago I won a pair of photochromic Julbo Monte Rosa's, was pretty happy with them. I guess 186/1 isn't terrible odds. 

0/516. Pretty pathetic.

I did win a tripod once, but that was in a comp run on the Salewa site, linked from UKC, so that doesn't really count.

Uncle Alan has had nothing to do with competitions since 2014. In fact, I can't remember running them before that either so perhaps never.

Entered 0, won 0

Uncle Alan

That wasn't a whinge thank you   I just thought an all expenses skiing holiday is a massively cool prize. I don't remember anything quite that fancy as a UKC prize!

I'm not an employee of UKC, and don't get paid for writing reviews, nevertheless, because I do get stuff to review I tend not to enter competitions that are basically kit giveaways. But in my defence I became a regular reviewer a bit over a decade ago, back when Mick was running things, I think mainly because I write in relatively coherent English, have always tried my best to takes some snaps of the 'gear in action' and - most importantly sent in some copy and pictures when I said I was going to! IIRC at the start, Mick tried a reasonable number of people who had offered to review and found quite a few seemed not to be very reliable at following through on receiving kit and actually writing anything!