Sparky was a Collie – the family pet of my childhood.A sudden memory of another Christmas: Sparky, dashing through a snow- covered field, a trail of paw-holes behind her Snow on her pointy nose, her dark widow’s peak. Ecstatic barking.”I can’t remember anything in particular,” I tell him. “But I’m sure I did, I’ve done lots of bad things in my life.” In a quick, unbearable flash, the little-girl-on-the-doorstep’s face comes back to me The grey exhaustion in her eyes I should have rung the police.I squeeze Jacob’s knee He’s thoughtful. Then, “I love you, Mummy,” – this is something he says when life suddenly feels good or makes sense.”I love you, too,” I say, but I’m somewhere else.

I’m in that long-ago frozen field with my sisters and our dog, laughter ricocheting – eery and forever – in that perfect snow lightness.. They lurk all about us: in the nooks and crannies of newspapers, on the back of cereal boxes, underneath deodorant cans, on bottletops, in leaflets left in supermarkets. We see them but never notice them, screening out the words “Win!” and “Prize” like so much junkmail. We’re talking competitions, brand-product consumer competitions, thousands every month, which most of us dismiss as an activity that makes train-spotting seem exciting

But more than 150,000 Britons disagree.

For them, filling out entry forms and conjuring up snappy slogans in order to win that elusive car, holiday, mountain bike, kettle, video, T-shirt or baseball cap has become a pivotal, sometimes obsessive, part of their lives. They are known as “compers” and they can spot the word “competition” from 100 yards.
Compers are usually solitary and secretive about what they do It is not hard to see why. Last year, pounds 120m worth of prizes were won and in 1996, the figure is expected to rise to pounds 150m. The fewer people that know about this, they reckon, the better their chances of winning.Many compers (170,000 of them) subscribe to Competitors Companion and Prize Draw Winner, the twin pillars of the comping subculture, which are available by subscription only (pounds 15 a year).

The magazines analyse winning slogans, offer tips and provide a comprehensive list of the two types of competition available each month: the simple prize draw, where you fill in your name and address on a postcard, send it off and first out of the hat is the winner (skill factor – zero); and ones that require you to answer a few simple questions and complete a slogan (the purists’ favourite).Mark Shapiro, a manager of Chartsearch, publisher of Competitors Companion and Prize Draw Winner, says: “More than 60 per cent of subscribers are women and about a third are middle-class pensioners. Compers are usually people with time on their hands.”For the sociable comper, there is the National Association of Competitors’ Clubs, which has 50-odd clubs around the country and where compers get together in pubs and hotel rooms to swap slogans, trade entry forms, socialise and brag about all the useful and useless prizes that they’ve won.Alice Cunningham, 33 and single, is a housing officer in Devon.A year ago, while I was convalescing after emergency surgery, I started doing consumer competitions as occupational therapy. Plumbers ran short of materials and the executive had to arrange special openings of supply stores.The timing of the thaw – while most schools, factories and offices were still on holiday – meant that many leaks from burst pipeswent undetected, leading to colossal water losses.Thousands of consumers in the Carmarthen area of west Wales spent the day without water because of a burst main. Water tankers were being used in some areas.The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which is responsible for Ulster’s public housing, dealt with more than 5,000 calls. The mop-up operation could take weeks.Water rationing was introduced in parts of Northern Ireland, with more than 100,000 homes affected as reservoirs ran low because of water leaks and burst pipes. Scotland is the worst hit so far, with 500,000 homes in Strathclyde suffering burst pipes at some point over the holiday. Tenants had to be evacuated from tower blocks in Glasgow’s Gorbals district when water tanks burst.Engineers worked around the clock to restore supplies, but for many customers returning from Christmas and New Year breaks to flooded homes, all that could be done was to switch off at street mains.A deluge of burst pipes in Tayside left more than 1,000 council homes in Dundee washed out as teams of plumbers, joiners and electricians fought to repair the damage.

DECCA AITKENHEAD

Thousands of homes across Britain were flooded yesterday and many more face having their water supply cut off, as the cold weather gave way to a sudden thaw.Temperatures soared from -20C in some places to about 7C, bringing rapid thawing and burst mains and pipes.
Water company switchboards were jammed with callers seeking assistance, and last night it was announced that the Army may be enlisted to help restore services north of the border. His widow, Linda, said: “He was a lovely man who was just a big, gentle person who would not hurt anybody. We will all miss him, he was such a good father and a husband.”St Paul’s grim history, page 2. As his 36-year-old brother tried to come to his aid he was shot in the side. His condition was said to be “serious but stable”.Officers said the four men they were hunting were “armed and dangerous” and warned the public to keep away from them.Chief Inspector Piet Biesheuvel said officers had interviewed the robbery victim, from Southampton, for clues. “We are still questioning the first man, who was apparently being robbed, as he is our chief witness,” he said.”At this stage, there is no motive for the shootings.