John Alcock,
Thanks for the commiserations. I found out through good old fashioned royal mail about 1 week ago. It was a very polite, in depth letter and very honest about the situation... they admitted it was a standard reply that was being sent out to "99.99%" of the candidates. It gave a very good impression of the company and the way they work.
I don't have the letter with me at the moment (ppruning from my desk at work!) but they did go into detail about the candidates they are looking for. Do you want me to post that when I'm back home tonight?
I was over ambitious and applied even though I don't have a PPL(a). I have a PPL(g) with about 30ish hrs time FW and about 14 hrs RW (all air experience flights in the ATC).
Good luck.
Regards,
L A