Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners of the two voting predictions.
I first eliminated every prediction that put the candidates in the wrong order. I then added up the differences between the actual result and the predictions (a negative difference counting for as much as a positive difference of the same amount).
My list of winners is below:
Winner: David Spencer who was out by just eight. He predicted Ken Clarke's 38 votes exactly.
Henry Cook was the runner-up. He was out by 10.
Kris and Edward Lennox shared joint third place. They were both out by 12. [Also Jamie (see comment below)].
We have joint winners of round two: Wasp and Tim Roll-Pickering.
Both were out by just four.
Wasp predicted 91 (DC), 58 (DD) and 49 (LF). Tim RP predicted 90, 55, 53. The actual result was 90, 57, 51.
Second was Edward Lennox (the only entrant to feature in the top three twice) with 93, 55, 51; a difference of 5.
Two people were out by 6 - D&F and Terry Keen.
If Carol Vorderman is visiting I'd be grateful if she'd check my number work... otherwise congratulations to the winners and as soon as I've had some mugs made they'll be hearing from me!
Sheesh! And not long after I posted that I came to the conclusion that the Davis campaign was in disentegration (the "I'm still standing" press release conjured up images of Maggie being defiant until she withdrew)!
Posted by: Tim Roll-Pickering | 27 October 2005 at 14:42
Huzzah i never win things.
Posted by: wasp | 27 October 2005 at 16:21
Without wishing to sound pernickity, I must point out I deserve to share joint third for being out by twelve
(67, 51, 43, 37)
Do I get a mug?
Posted by: Jamie | 27 October 2005 at 20:21
Jamie - you are right - you were third, too!
Congrats but only the first-placed folks get a mug.
Posted by: Editor | 27 October 2005 at 20:34