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I'm considering whether to bother with overwintering sets this year

Have got a good few varieties of onion seed to try (which I think can be sown anytime from New Year on),  in which case will they be ready around the same sort of time as overwintered sets ?

I'll be trying both this time round. I grew white and red from sets sown late Autumn last season and although I had some mould (or possibly white rot), overall I was delighted with the results, especially the red which had a really strong flavour. This time round I plan to put seeds in between the sets for comparison.

I usually grow two lots of sets - one lot go in Oct/Nov and the other Feb/March.  This year I grew some from seed in the spring and they were fantastic, I've just dug out the packet of overwintering onions to sow this weekend.  I hope they'll be as successful.  Will grow in modules in the poly tunnel and then put in the ground in the spring.

Dropping the conventional overwinter.   

Only going to try white onion (Silver Moon) from sets. Perhaps if we had a larger plot we would go for it but after two seasons we have concluded that for us the time margin over the main crop doesn't justify the effort / space usage .

Will probably grow Pink Torpedo from seed again: sown in late January last time so may try Dec this time, since they were ready at the same time as the normal crop rather than earlier.

I read somewhere that the overwintering ones (which are ready in Julyish as opposed to August) do not keep as well as the spring sown/planted ones.  I think I should be holding back on the overwintering ones and growing more summer ones.  I do want to move to growing from seed rather than sets, as it is a lot cheaper.

I agree  Asbean, we grew Silvermoon and a red one ??? from sets(Tuckers)overwinter. They grew fine, but by the time they were ready, the Long Red Florence (sown early March indoors) had caught up ::)