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Does anyone have inside information or anecdotes about how prizewinners are chosen?

I've just heard a story about how a man who worked in London would always deliver his entry by hand just after the last post, thereby ensuring his was on the top of the pile, so he thought. He did win a number of times, though.

I think the Times allocates numbers to entries and then selects randomly. However, I read of someone who had won the Listener three times in one year, while I've been doing it for years with no success. Bah, humbug! But I know random events can occur in clusters and I'm not suggesting any wrong doing.

I have heard that sending an entry in an extra large pink envelope can help. Or that entries from certain regions are dismissed. Are these all just urban myths?

Hi Orson,

I draw the grids out by hand which probably disqualifies me from the competitions. That said, if I did enter I'd be inclined to put my brother's address in Scotland or my sister's in Bath because I've noticed that winners from London are no more frequent than anywhere else, which seems odd given the much larger population - I can't help but wonder if those who pick the prizes are instructed to "spread them out" - geographically speaking and avoid picking too many winners from big cities.

Again possibly an urban myth but I did read that when entry was by post only the people at the Telegraph would tip out all the entries down a flight of stairs and draw the winners from those which landed on a certain step.