North West Twelve-Bell Striking Competition

for the Westminster Shield

Competition Rules

North-West Twelve-Bell Striking Competition


Objectives and Rules


1. Objective


1.1 The objective of the North-West Twelve Bell Striking Competition is to promote fellowship and friendship between ringers, and to encourage ringing on twelve bells, in the north-west of England.


2. Entry qualifications


2.1 Any twelve-bell tower, or band or Association that rings regularly on twelve bells, is invited to enter a team. Each member of a team must, at the time that entries are submitted, have a current and regular association with the tower or Association /Guild they represent.


2.2 A confirmed band list, including nominees for the judging pool (see below) must be provided to the organizers two weeks before the competition, with amendments permitted in unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances, such as illness.


2.3 Ringers may ring for more than one band, but no more than 50% of ringers in any band may ring wholly for another band. People ringing in more than one band are encouraged to ring a different bell for the second band.


3. Towers, Test pieces, and Judging


3.1 The organizers will arrange a tower and, by agreement with participating bands, select an appropriate test piece.


3.2 At towers equipped with proven Strikeometer technology such as Hawkear, the computer's fault marks will be used, and each band is asked to nominate a member to a pool of people who will listen and contribute comments on the impression given by the other bands' ringing.


3.3 At towers where Hawkear (or something similar) is not available, each band is asked to nominate two members to the judging pool. Mark sheets will be provided for the chosen test piece, and judges should allocate a whole number of faults, up to three in total, for each imperfect row they hear. Scores will then be calculated as a percentage of the total possible faults (that is, three times the number of rows in the test-piece). The judges should also comment on the impression given by each piece of ringing. The organizers may not need to call on all the judges in the pool.


19th October 2016