Nobody is perfect, and spellchecker can only do so much for you. Especially when those dratted homonymes come into the game.

yes, I've learned not to rely on that,* Nnnnggg! Bites knuckles *. I am afraid I don't have an analytical enough mind to go through a story with a nit-comb, I just want a damn good story.

Well, with regard to the MEFA's, one of the winners was told by some-one on ff.com that they wanted to kill her for her writing, so what can you say. :| I am never entirely happy with competitions myself, even though my work is not eligible ( well, strictly speaking it is, but rate for subject matter more than content ) since I know there were some unplaced works which that were beaten by ones nowhere near as good. Other people mentioned that too, since some-one put up a list of ones which they thought should have been placed. There were some that won which thoroughly deserved it, and some which seemed a lot like ' friend votes ' and I don't see any way around that, since the Tolkien fandom, large as it is, is also a ' small world. '
I won't read a story just because it has an award on it, because I know some shockingly overlooked and brilliant authors.
I thought you were one of the Big names, myself, and you certainly deserve to be!