Some members have found it difficult to participate in the annual Grand Draw held at our National Garden Railway Show, because they’re unable to attend in person and find it difficult to pay for the tickets supplied with February 2025 SMT as their bank account doesn’t offer a cheque facility. To make the draw more accessible to these and potentially other members, we’re taking a leaf out of the UK National Lottery’s book and providing the ability to pay for Grand Draw tickets by Direct Debit.

  • We’ve worked with Warners to set up a new subscription which buys you 12 Grand Draw tickets, or multiples of 12, as you prefer.  This is available online by clicking this link or by phone on 01778 392016 (lines open Monday to Friday 08:00-17:30 and Saturday 09:00-16:00).
  • Anyone with a UK bank account can subscribe to this.
  • The claim date will be the end of February each year, after which we’ll allocate 12 tickets to you (or more as required).  No need to complete and send in the ones supplied with February 2025 SMT.  We’ll complete tickets in your name and put them into the draw.
  • Due to the practical difficulty of finding a dozen tickets amongst thousands of other tickets, refunds cannot be made, but the Direct Debit can be cancelled at any time.
  • If you are attending the show, you can buy tickets and pay for them by credit or debit card at the Association Hub.

You may ask, if we can accept payment by credit or debit card at the show, why we can’t do the same over the phone or online?  UK gambling law does not permit use of a credit card for payments “by remote means”, which means online, over the phone or by email or text message.  The systems available to us cannot, from its number, reliably differentiate between a credit and a debit card, so we cannot accept remote payments by this means either.  Sadly, this makes it very difficult for members overseas to participate in the draw, unless payment is sent by money order in UK Pounds Sterling, which we know is costly.  Being a non-UK resident doesn’t prevent participation in the draw, so if you’re attending the show, you can buy tickets at Association Hub in UK Pounds Sterling or by credit card.  These restrictions are applied by UK gambling law, not by the Association.

More details are in this November’s issue of SMT.  I hope that this makes the 2025 Grand Draw more accessible to more members.

Alan Regan, 2025 National Show Director