Major Ongoing Problems with email

Hello all. If anyone has sent an email in the last month and has had no reply, please let me apologise. UK2 who host our email and domain have had problems with their email server and appear to have lost the last 4 years of stored Fellsman emails. Flippin' marvellous. In addition any email sent in the last month has not been received. I have desperately being trying to get the emails restored but UK2 technical support appears to be non-existent as they don't pick up the phone to their 50p/minute support line and the online system of submitting tickets results in total silence. If I cannot restore the emails in the next two weeks we will endeavour to change our host for the domain and email. As of today we do now appear to be receiving new emails so if you resend your emails I will endeavour to reply as soon as I can.

In the meantime can I just thank you for your patience and assure you that we are trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible.

In answer to the most usual query we get at this time of year, entry forms and event dates…

The 2010 event will be on the 8th and 9th of May as this is the second full weekend of the month. The entry form will be going up on here at the start of December for download.If you entered in 2008 or 2009 you should receive an entry form via mailshot in December or very early Jan (depending on Xmas post issues). Entries will open on the 1st January 2010 and no entries will be processed before that date. If you are sending cheques please can you date them for 2010 not 2009 as they will not be cashed before January.

It is our intention to offer limited online entries this year to 'see how it goes'. Currently the plan is to open postal entries on Jan 1st and online entries on 1st of Feb for 4-6 weeks subject to us reaching the maximum number of entries which is 450. This way people who wish to enter by post will get priority. If the online entries prove successful this year we will extend it for the 2011 event.

I appreciate this is not ideal but we are really just testing the waters this year. We want to try and avoid any major problems by doing it all too fast.

P.S. Finally got through to UK2 tech support via an online chat while writing this blog entry and they have escalated the ticket. Woohoo! Since it was Critical before (top level) and they've had it a fortnight already I'm not holding my breath. Rant over.