Free Entry Route

A free postal entry route is available for every competition until 7:30 PM on its closing date, unless the competition page says otherwise. No purchase is required to enter by post.

Send one individual postcard or letter, carrying its own valid First Class or Second Class postage, to Crown & Eagle Competitions, 6 East Grove Road, Newport, NP19 9QG. The whole entry must be handwritten and must clearly state your full name, postcode, date of birth, contact email, the exact three-character competition code shown on the competition tile, and this statement: “I agree to the Crown & Eagle Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.”

You can have up to 10 postal entries entered in each competition, and each entry must be sent separately under its own stamp. We count entries by the email address on them. Any further entries from the same email address for the same competition are void.

Handwriting is required by default to prevent automated entry abuse. If a recognised disability or physical condition makes handwriting impossible, email [email protected] before posting. We record the adjustment against the email address only, without requesting diagnosis or medical details. Once recorded, typed or printed physical entries from that email address are permitted until you ask us to remove the adjustment or the related account is deleted. All other rules still apply.

Post your entry at least 7 days before the closing date shown on the competition page. That is our recommended posting date, and it allows for Second Class delivery. Because we judge entries by the date we record them, an entry posted after the recommended date may arrive too late to be entered.

An entry is valid only if it meets every requirement above. Bulk entries, multiple entries in one envelope, incomplete or illegible entries, entries without the statement, and entries from anyone under 18 or anyone not resident in Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) will be rejected. If an account already exists for the supplied email address, the entrant's full name and date of birth must match that account. A mismatch will be rejected. An entry linked to an account that is restricted, or in a time-out or self-exclusion period, will also be rejected. If no account exists for the supplied email address, an internal guest record will be created. An invalid entry is rejected whenever it arrives.

For every competition, 25% of the total number of tickets, rounded down to a whole ticket, is kept for free postal entries. We call this the postal reserve. For example, a competition with 250 tickets keeps 62 tickets for postal entries, and a competition with 3 tickets or fewer has no postal reserve. Online sales are limited to the other tickets. When they have all been allocated, or are held for payments still being processed, the competition page shows that online tickets have sold out, and the competition stays open for postal entries until its closing date.

Valid postal entries are allocated tickets from the postal reserve. Once the reserve is used up, they can also be allocated any tickets still available online.

72 hours before the advertised closing date and time, any reserve tickets not allocated to postal entries are released and go on sale online. After that, online and postal entries use the same remaining tickets, so the competition can sell out before its closing date.

We judge a postal entry by the date and time we record it, not by its postmark or the date it was posted. We record post on the evening it arrives. If we can't, we record it at our next session, and entries are recorded in the order we open them. An entry must be recorded by the advertised closing date and time of the competition it names. Competitions close at 7:30 PM on their closing date, unless the competition page says otherwise.

A valid entry that we record by the closing date is allocated one random remaining ticket in that competition. If the only remaining tickets are held for payments still being processed, the entry waits in order of the date and time we recorded it. When a held ticket is released, it is allocated to the first waiting entry. If every held ticket is paid for, the competition has sold out and the waiting entries are void, as described below. A valid entry that we record after the closing date is void: it is not entered into any draw, and we securely shred it. A void entry is turned away because of when it was recorded, because no ticket was left, or because the entry limit was reached, which is separate from an entry rejected as invalid.

We confirm each entered postal entry by email when we record it. We don't email about void entries at the time. Instead, after the competition is drawn, we send one email to each entrant saying how many of their entries were not entered and why, where the email address on the entries is legible.

Postal entries do not reserve tickets while in transit. We are not responsible for postal delays. Processed postal entries have the same chance of winning as paid entries.

A competition sells out only when every ticket is allocated through paid or free online entries, or processed postal entries, not while tickets are held for payments still being processed. A valid postal entry that we record after a competition has sold out is void: it is not allocated a ticket and is not entered into this draw or any other draw, and there is no consolation or secondary draw for void entries. We tell the entrant in the summary email sent after the draw, and securely shred the entry. To give your entry the best chance of being allocated a ticket, post it early.

Accepted physical correspondence is stored by the competition code to which the ticket was allocated and securely shredded 60 days after the final accepted winner is found, unless a legal hold requires longer retention. Rejected and void correspondence is counted by reason and securely shredded promptly. We keep no personal details from a rejected entry. From a void entry, we keep only the email address, to send the summary email after the draw, and then delete it.

By participating, you agree to abide by the terms set out in our Terms of Service. Your postcard or letter must also contain the exact statement shown above. Read our Privacy Policy before posting.