autumn sown onions

as stated before i sowed Ailsa craig last autumn [spare seeds] some have gone to seed [never happens to same year sowings] but what was noticable they did not perform as well as this year sowings [2nd jan] worth trying but not going to be repeated we have ended up with some clean large onions but the reds [red creole] were not good can anyone reccomend a reliable red onion to grow from seed  we did ok with red baron before   thanks in advance.