I'm not sure about your online entry dilemma but I must congratulate you on your choice of football allegience. As a fellow City fan I can empathise with the arduous slog that is both the Wycoller Hoof and the price of following City. Maybe the Abu Dhabi United Group would like to sponser "The Hoof" next year, I'd be happy to wear a tea towel in exchange for free entry. As long as you don't have to serve up sheeps eyeballs and camel's whatnots at the checkpoints!

If anyone wants to send me some of their cheques, I'm happy to write their applications and cheques and post them for only 90p a time! Normally I just get the butler to do mine, but it could be a nice little earner.

This subject came up at the Local Groups Representatives Meeting last weekend. A number of events have used online entry and the feedback from both entrants and organisers is generally positive. I have entered 3 events using the Sportident system and found it very easy to use.

The National Committee is encouraging LDWA groups to use online entry so that we can get more experience of it, develop ideas of how it might be developed, and evaluate whether it would be worthwhile to develop our own system. Sportident is not the only online entry system around. Some LDWA events have used the Runners World system. This is more sophisticated and has potential publicity benefits as it is viewed by lots of people, but personally I don't like it as it is difficult to pick out an LDWA event from the hundreds of running events.

It is up to individual groups and organisers to decide whether they charge a premium for online entry, but since the entrant is likely to be saving the cost of a couple of stamps and the hassle of writing and posting a cheque and entry form, charging an extra £1 seems perfectly reasonable.

The Wycoller Hoof this year had 63 pre entries of whom 22 entered on line. I knew our East Lancs group would lose £1 for each on line entry. What I didn't know was that VAT is also deducted therefore total loss is £1-17.5p per entry. Now on a walk where so few entered that could be deemed fairly insignificant but it does represent one third of all pre entries and on line entry is likely to be a growing trend. When I book match tickets for my beloved MCFC I pay a surcharge of £1.50 per ticket for each on line application but no surcharge for a postal application. Should the LDWA consider charging on line entrants a £1 surcharge per entry? Alternatively should it be left to individual groups to decide? Maybe not much of an issue now but in events that get two or three hundred entries that represents a considerable loss of income. It could be argued that overall entry fees can be raised to cover the anticipated loss but why should postal applicants subsidise on line entrants. Thoughts would be most welcome as we look to determine entry fees for next year's Wycoller Hoof where we are incidentally looking to take a bit of a gamble and reduce the entry fee.