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. Ideally, each member of a team should, at the time that entries are submitted, have a current and regular association with the tower or Association /Guild they represent.  However, if teams are unable to field a complete band they will be able to use ringers from the available pool on the day.

2.2 Only bands who are made up entirely of ringers with a current and regular association with the tower or Association /Guild they represent will be eligible to win the trophy.

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.  They may choose to appoint a Chief Judge, or utilise a judging pool from the assembled teams.

3.2 At towers equipped with proven Strikeometer technology such as Hawkear, the computer's fault marks will be used.  In the absence of a Chief Judge, each band may be 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, and in the absence of a Chief Judge, each band may be 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.

September 2024