The Crawford Cup is an annual six bell competition for towers within the guild.
General
- The aim of the competition is to encourage good striking in Service bands, and to promote this through a friendly competition on six bells
- The cup shall never become the absolute property of any team.
The Final
- The Final shall be arranged by each district in rotation and shall be held in that district on a Saturday in May, at a tower not represented in the final.
- No prior practice by any team ringing as a team shall be allowed on the bells once the venue of the contest has been decided.
- All teams competing shall have the opportunity to be represented at the draw, at the appointed time as advised to the district secretaries at least 6 weeks prior to the day of the final. Should the host district wish to carry out the draw before the day of the contest this must be not less than two weeks prior to the contest date. Any team not ready to take their place as drawn shall ring after the team drawn last.
- Teams shall be entered by towers and at least four of the bells shall be rung by ringers who regularly ring as members of that tower’s band. All ringers must be members of the Guild.
- No ringer shall ring for more than one team.
- The test piece shall be a true 360 of Minor or Doubles in any method(s). The 360 changes of the test piece shall be judged.
- Each team competing shall be accompanied in the tower by another ringer not associated with the team to see that the test piece is rung true.
- A practice piece lasting not more than two minutes of ringing shall be allowed, after which the bells shall be stood. Then up to two minutes of rounds shall be allowed before going into changes for the test piece.
- Not more than 15 minutes should elapse between a team finishing their ringing and the next starting.
- No team member shall communicate with the Judge(s) during the competition and at each contest the decision of the Judge(s) shall be final.
District Heats
- Each district shall hold a competition to decide which tower(s) shall represent their district in the final.
- Notwithstanding the rules outlined within this section, each district should use the rules for the final as a guide but may depart from these rules in order that the competition has as wide appeal as possible, encouraging involvement and the betterment of ringing in their area. Any departures from the rules used for the final shall be notified by an officer of the district concerned to competing bands in advance of the competition.
- A team shall be eligible to progress to the Final if it complies with rule 4 of the Final. No ringer may be included within the ringers from a tower, as prescribed by rule 4 of the Final, for more than one team in the heat.
- The highest placed eligible team shall progress to the Final from each district heat. If there are six or more eligible teams in a district heat, the team placed second may also progress.
- A band from the winning tower from the previous year’s final shall be eligible to compete in the final, irrespective of whether they enter the district heat, on the payment of the fee detailed in rule 3 above. If this band enters the district heat, it shall not count towards the number of eligible bands in rule 5 above.