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and the outlay was 29 pence

Sorry, that didn't count. UK chart company say that you have to pay at least 40p for them to count it.

At 29p a copy it wouldn't have counted towards the singles chart. The rules require a minimum price of 40p on downloaded content.

FWIW, my reason for taking part was that I thought it would be funny and cool if it worked, and the outlay was 29 pence

In which case it wasn't counted, the minimum price is 40p for a digital download to be included (not that I expect you to loose any sleep over 20p)

Source: http://www.theofficialcharts.com/docs/Official%20UK%20Singles%20Chart%20Rules%20August%202009.pdf

This is actually really insightful. Here's the UK chart. Don't recognise anything from it? Here's all the number 1s from the Seventies. Ah, music was so much better then, when we had the genius of Pink Floyd and *cough* Showaddywaddy.

Being an old fogie myself, I didn't expect to recognize anything from the UK chart. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see some good artists on there. At least one of the top-25 (Pet Shop Boys) has been around since the early 80's, and another (Prodigy) has been around since the early 90's. And, (un?-) fortunately, to complete the circle of life they also have Elton John on both lists.

This is actually really insightful. Here's the UK chart. Don't recognise anything from it? Here's all the number 1s from the Seventies. Ah, music was so much better then, when we had the genius of Pink Floyd and *cough* Showaddywaddy.

Despite what the story says, it is NOT all downloads which count. If you look at the chart rules (http://www.theofficialcharts.com/docs/NEW_Single_ Chart_Rules_2007.pdf, there are very stringent conditions on a downloaded track being counted for the chart. Amongst these are the minimum dealer price of £0.40 per track. This will immediately preclude any tracks released under Creative Commons etc. It also only seems to apply to track downloaded from 'official' online retailers.

"Digital Singles without a physical variant will not be eligible"

...think you must be thinking of the UK Download chart, not Singles chart.

There are some very strict rules (in the UK at least) on what you can include with your release to be eligible for chart placement. You can find PDF of the rules here.