Is The Ft Prize Crossword Fixed?

[Gerdalund]

I do the FT Prize crossword every Saturday.Some time ago I noticed that a number of the winners came from abroad.I therefore decided to keep a careful record of this.Now if I asked you what percentage of the winners come from abroad I suspect that very few of you would come up with more than about 10%. It is, after all, a UK newspaper.Well, of the last 93 winners 35, that is 37.6%, came from abroad.I smell a rat and would be interested to know whether the rest of you agree with me.
Gerdalund

[sandyRoe]

Can it be entered on-line? That might make a difference.

[roslyn251254]

I've won twice ( a very nice pen and a Brewers Dictionary) in the last couple of years and I'm not from abroad.

[roslyn251254]

No you have to snail mail your entry sandyroe

[Mamyalynne]

I doubt it very much, cannot see what the FT would have to gain by that anyway.

No such thing as local any more, it will be read and entered worldwide.

[anaxcrosswords]

The FT is one of very few truly international newspapers. A larger than typical overseas solvership is merely a reflection of that. There are no rats apart from us crossword setters.

[humbersloop]

How would you set about fixing a prize crossword?

[Gerdalund]

You simply pick out the envelopes with a foreign stamp on them, perhaps to illistrate that you are an international newspaper.

[aelmpvw]

it is of course possible that the homegrown entrants drawn out of the hat had an answer wrong

[grumpy01]

I have had two wins in the last three years,a fountain pen and a Brewers Dictionary and I live in the UK.I have also noticed that the Independent crossword does throw up a lot of regular winners,some whom contribute on here.

[Gerdalund]

Can I ask you all to tell me honestly what percentage of winners you would have expected to be from abroad if I hadn't told you the number.

[hankir]

I am from abroad.
I do not send in an entry every week. But I do it a few times a year.
I read FT (and Guardian) online a few times a week.
FT provides free puzzles on their web site, making it easy to print and solve.
An entry mailed on Monday would easily reach FT offices by Friday.
Why does FT have to cheat?
They just open the entries at random and first 3 win.
I have not won FT Crossword but I have won Polymath.
I think an international newspaper should provide equal opportunity for all readers to participate.
Even Guardian has winners from outside of the UK. A couple of months ago, the Crossword Centre's winner was from India.
I hope FT publishes stats on what percentage of their entries are from abroad.
I am sure the number is high.

[BlueIce]

I'm not from abroad and have won this a couple of times in the last few years. Won the IOS cryptic 7 times and Beelzebub twice last year (have won Beelzebub once this year). I put that down to low entries and being unbelievably lucky. Don't know why OED rather than Chambers is the prize.I give them away as raffle prizes for deserving causes