Rules and Procedures for the Holding of Branch Striking Competitions.
(Ratified at the Northern Branch Annual General Meeting held on 25th September 2022)
1. The date and venue of Branch Striking Competitions shall be decided by the Branch Committee or Ringing Master on the directions of the Branch Committee.
2. The venue shall be a church within the branch.
3. The Branch Ringing Master shall invite a suitably qualified person to judge the competition.
4. Judging.
i. The judge may invite up to 2 other suitable persons to assist with the judging.
ii. The method of judging shall be left to the discretion of the judge.
ii. The judge’s decision in matters relating to the test ringing shall be final.
iv. The judge(s) shall be entitled to claim reasonable out of pocket expenses in attending the competition.
5. Ordinarily there shall be 2 competitions, each to be judged separately. The first being call changes, the second being method ringing.
6. General.
i. Each church with Association members shall be invited to enter 1 or more teams in each of the competitions.
ii. Wherever possible the members of each team shall all be members of the same tower. Where this is not possible, due to lack of suitably capable members, not more than 2 ringers for a 6-bell competition and 3 ringers for an 8-bell competition who are not members of that tower may ring in the competition. These ringers must regularly support the tower by attending ringing practice or by ringing for Sunday service.
iii. No ringer may take part in more than one method team.
iv. No ringer may take part in more than one call change team.
v. Each call change team may include only 1 ringer participating in the method competition.
7. Call Change Competition.
i. The call change competition is open to any team not able to ring in the method competition due to the inability of all or some of its members to ring the chosen method. See note 2 below.
ii. The changes to be rung and the minimum duration of the test ringing shall be decided by the Branch Ringing Master.
iii. Each team shall be entitled to ring 5 minutes practice before the test ringing.
iv. Before the test ringing commences a suitable signal shall be given to the judge. This will normally consist of 2 whole pulls on the treble.
8. Method Competition.
i. The method and test composition shall be decided by the Branch Ringing Master.
ii. Each team shall be entitled to practice the test method for 5 minutes or for any other period specified by the Branch Ringing Master.
iii. Before the test ringing commences a suitable signal shall be given to the judge. This will normally consist of 2 whole pulls on the treble.
9. The Branch Ringing Master shall be Master of Ceremonies.
10. The duties of the Master of Ceremonies shall be as follows:
i. To arrange suitable accommodation for the judge(s).
ii. To conduct the draw for the order of ringing.
iii. To escort the teams to and from the ringing chamber.
iv. To ensure that each team is conversant with the relevant rules of the competition.
v. To ensure that practice ringing does not exceed the limits laid down.
vi. To advise the judge(s) of any unforeseen occurrence.
11. The Master of Ceremonies has the power to disqualify any team which:
i. Wastes time excessively.
ii. Is not complete within a reasonable period after the allotted starting time.
iii. Excessively exceeds the allotted practice time.
iv. Consists of ringers not covered by rule 6.
Note 1.
In these rules the Branch Ringing Master may be deputised for by any other member directed by the Branch Ringing
Master or Branch Committee.
Note 2.
Whilst the exact proportion of method to call change only ringers is not here specified, it is left to the discretion of the members of each team to act “in the spirit” of the competition. It is suggested that the maximum number of competent method ringers is limited to half of the total number of ringers. However, this should not prevent a team being entered which has a high proportion of ringers who have not yet reached a standard of method ringing appropriate to being entered in a team in the method competition.