A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

As many of you know, over recent months I have had a series  of health problems, which, among other factors, have led me to decide I can no longer continue to produce  Grape Vine.  

However I didn't want to leave  all my subscribers in the lurch with no comping magazine, so I have arranged that Grape Vine will merge  with the excellent Compers  News.  It will already be familiar to many of you, and you may already know that, along with Pam Crampton, I write a monthly column in it, so you'll still be seeing me every month!

Editor Steve Middleton is, like me, an experienced and successful comper who cares about the compers who subscribe to Compers News. Like me, he likes to look  out for potential low entry comps and  point out the occasional pitfalls,  so I'm sure Compers  News will help you to keep up your comping success rate. And as well as comp listings, you will find regular articles and features as well as in-house competitions to enter, and  get access to the  popular forum Chatterbox. 

Compers News will be in touch with subscribers shortly to confirm the  details of  your transferred subscription - rest assured that no-one will  lose out  and anyone who  really does not want to give the new merged magazine a try will be able to have the balance of  their subscription  refunded.  

The closing date  for our  annual winners list competition will still be December 31st, although the 6 month sub  part of the prize will be  replaced  by a £25.00 cheque, and all those who  were current subscribers on August 31st  will be in the draw, but from now on the  monthly lists will be  posted here on the blog. The blog will carry on as it always has done, so those of you who are NOT Grape Vine subscribers will notice no difference, apart from the removal of the monthly competition which had a Grape Vine sub as a prize. I hope to be able to bring you other competitions with exciting prizes over the next few months though!

 

The PO Box address will still be active until January 31st,  but  please do  NOT send any subs or  renewals to that address, or make  any cheques  or PayPal payments out to me, as I will have to return  them to you. 

I would like  to  thank you all  for your  support over the years  I have been producing Grape  Vine, especially my  team  of "elves"  Pam Crampton,  Karen  Bond, Sharon  Buchalter  and Kevin Francis, without whom  you would probably have gone  GV-less several times over the last  year.  Also Jenni Bower-Tebbs who has  provided regular packs of entry forms, Marina Chappell who has advertised Grape Vine on her website and to the many readers who have helped me to find elusive  entry forms and answers  and have helped to make  sure each issue was  packed with  as many  comps as  possible.  

Now I’d like to hand over to Steve, who will introduce himself to those of you who don’t already know him.

Steve says:

As Jane says, my name will already be familiar to many of you reading this so I’ll keep it short.  But over the years that both Jane and I have been comping, our ‘careers’ have been very similar.  We both started comping in earnest at around the same time, and it’s interesting to note the number of times that we both had letters printed in the same issue of the old Competitors’ Journal back in the 70s and 80s. We even started producing our respective comping magazines at a similar point in the mid-noughties.  I also know that our approach to putting our magazines together each month is exactly the same, and that involves personally making the effort to get out to shops and supermarkets most days to see what’s out there.  So, for those of you who don’t already know about Compers News, you’ll hopefully find the same standard of accurate, first-hand comping info that you’ve come to expect from Jane and Grape Vine.

Of course, some things will be different and might take some getting used to, but I’m always genuinely happy to receive your comments and suggestions so do please get in touch.  As Jane has mentioned, you’ll continue to see her name in CN each month – and I’m sure that she’ll keep me on my toes! – so this merger really is an exciting opportunity.

I’m honoured that Jane thought of me and Compers News when she made what I know was a difficult decision to stop producing Grape Vine, and I’ll try my best to live up to her high standards.  Hopefully now, she’ll be able to spend more time on her own comping again… which will doubtless mean fewer prizes for the rest of us, but I’m sure you’ll all agree that it’s the very least she deserves.  Thank you Jane!