Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

Christmas Conundrums 2004

And the winners are...

Here's the order of Triumphant Victors drawn from the BtP Homburg at 2259 hrs GMT on 5 January. Thanks to our Impartial BtP Assistant (illustrated, in front of the BtP Christmas Tree).

Five lucky people Helen selected will be sent their first choice of prize.

If your name appears on the main list below, please make sure we have your 'real world' address as soon as possible, and we'll activate the BtP snails to bring the goodies to the various continents required.

First in, against the clock	Dave Pettit, who wins his first choice, the second-most-popular item Procol Harum's 2003 DVD, Live at the Union Chapel, signed by Gary Brooker; Dave scooped a signed rarity in 2002 and got a rare shirt last year too.	FECGIDJHAB
Second in, against the clock	Axel Leonhardt, who wins his first choice, the Palers' Project 2CD of Procol compositions, From Shadow to Shadow	AGJFECDIBH
Third in, against the clock	Kerry Holloway, who wins his second choice: 2CD Procol Harum, 'The First Four' : the Legendary Albums (thanks, Metro)	FJCEGBAHDI
First out of the BtP Homburg	Nancy Zohner, who wins her first choice, Procol Harum's 2002 CD, The Well's on Fire, signed by Gary Brooker	CFJIAEGHDB
Second out of the BtP Homburg	Jeremy Gilien, who wins his first choice, a Procol tour poster from 2003	EGFCAHJIDB
Third out of the BtP Homburg	Tormod Ringvold, who wins his first choice (and the most-popular item), a comic photo-collage from Procol's 2003 world tour, signed by Brooker, Fisher, Whitehorn, Brzezicki and Pegg	GCEJFBDHAI
Fourth out of the BtP Homburg	John Cammalleri, who wins his first choice, the BBC CD Procol Harum live in Concert, 1974	BCJFHAEGDI
Fifth out of the BtP Homburg	Mick Norman, who wins his second choice, Lost in the Looking-Glass, elegantly signed by TV's notorious thaumaturge Derren Brown	AHGFCJBEDI
Sixth out of the BtP Homburg	Bob Jaccino, who wins his sixth choice, the Dave Steffen Band CD, Give me a Thrill ... Dave's Whisky Train is the opening track on the most recent Palers' Project CD	FGCAHDJEBI
Seventh out of the BtP Homburg	Marvin Chassman, who has been a winner every year since the puzzles started in 1997, amazingly wins his first choice of prize: a year's free 'your.name@procolharum.com' e-mail address	IFCGJAHBED

Many thanks to everyone who took part in this year's puzzles, specially those who were kind enough to comment on the enjoyment they'd got from the whole procedure. Commiserations to the following, who sent in the right word, but were unlucky in the BtP Homburg: Kerry Canfield, Peter Cohen, Rod George, Ian Hockley, Pat Keating, Mark Mott, Beverly Peyton, James Towill (Bert Saraco also got it right ... "we scrambled through the dorm barging in on anybody who might have a computer up and running ... pure Marx Brothers stuff, I assure you ... amazing contest! Great fun – great frustration!" ... but was just too late!); further commiserations to many, many competitors (it may be best not to mention their names) whose responses were 'differently correct' ... nearly all of these errors were caused simply by failing to read the instruction, which asked for the first word of the song, not the first word of the title. The answer was predictably 'weird' (the first word of the song, Long Gone Geek ... we didn't ask for the first word of the title!). We were kind to people who did not spell the word correctly, and we were similarly lenient with those who ignored the special link, who sent in incomplete prize-preference listings, and so on.

Finally, thanks to John Annable whose clues gave a lot of pleasure. Regarding the mild mix-up on 30 December, John notes: 'Sorry about the ‘Boredom’ mistake. Where the error occurred was that I was using the 30th Anniversary edition which has Salty Dog shifted to a different CD, thus mucking up the track list." He promises us another fiendish puzzle for some future Christmas!

Back to the main page about the 2004 'Beyond the Pale' Christmas puzzles