Every year, there are £14m worth of competition prizes to be won in this country - which is why every morning, Robert White gets out of bed at 5.30am and spends a couple of hours before work dreaming up slogans that could win him anything from a load of ladies' tights to a sleek, sexy roadster, writes George Frew

Robert, 44, of Blackthorn Close, Blackthorn, near Bicester, has been entering competitions for five years now. So far, his winning haul includes 12 china pots, the aforementioned ladies' tights, a huge bar of chocolate, £2,000 worth of Argos vouchers, £500 worth of luxury weekend hotel vouchers, a TV and video and a year's supply of jelly babies, gravy granules and bread.

But wood-machinist Robert's finest hour to date came in September this year when he won a £26,000 Renault Sports Spider car in a Nescaf Blend 37 competition.

Robert - who features in tomorrow night's Winners programme on ITV - came up with the slogan 'Powerful flavour, dynamic display, stunning performance, drive of the day'. When he discovered he'd won, Robert says he started shaking and "running around the house like a lunatic".

In tomorrow night's programme, a psychologist who has studied why some people are lucky and others are not comes up with the theory that people who consider themselves lucky will try harder at everything - including competitions.

"I do consider myself to be lucky, yeah," says Robert. "And a lot of it is luck. I consider that if I am going to do something, I'm going to give it my best shot. You can't do any good if you do something half-hearted. Being positive helps. I do the pools, too - I've never won, but I'm going to.

"I was up at my usual time this morning trying to come up with a slogan for a competition with Gillette to win a trip for two on Concorde - I like the idea of that. I prefer slogan-type competitions. The way to win them is to use the most exciting words you can to describe the product."

He says his wife Christine enjoys the prizes, but isn't enthusiastic when it comes to helping him with the entries - although Robert does try his slogans out on her. "She soon tells me if she thinks they're no good," he admits.

Robert's competition compulsion costs him around £6 a week in second class stamps, which he describes as "definitely worth it". Across the country, people who share Robert's enthusiasms are known as 'Compers'. They go on courses together to discuss the skills needed for winning and even have their own agony aunt that they write to for help and advice. Robert, though, prefers to go it alone. "I've heard of these clubs, yeah, but I'm not in any. I like doing my own thing."

Most compers will scour supermarket shelves looking for products which offer a chance to win a prize. Often, they'll buy the item even if they never use it - just to be able to have a crack at the comp. The more unscrupulous just tear the competition entry form from the product.

As far as winning top prizes go, it's a case of 'the car's the star' for compers. Not that they always keep the prize.

Robert admits that he's sold his dream roadster and now has "a healthy bank balance and a new car".

He says: "To tell you the truth, I was terrified every time I took it out. I only did about 350 miles in it because there was only about three days of dry weather. A car like that with no roof isn't much good in this country."

So what did he replace it with? "A Ford Escort. Don't laugh - it's got everything. A CD, airbags..."

And a roof, presumably. What would his ideal all-time best competition ever be?

Robert thinks for a minute before replying: "That's a good question. I don't know - what would yours be?"

Ten grand a month tax-free for five years, I suggest.

"Yeah - that sounds good. But I'll tell you what I'd really like instead of money - a nice round-the-world cruise."

It occurs to me that with £10,000-a-month tax-free, you could buy quite a few cruises. But then I remember - to Robert and his fellow compers, winning's the thing.

And as long as they've got postcards and second class stamps and there are prizes to be won, there's only one thing to do:

Carry on comping.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.