How to Enter Rules Venues/Results Semi Finals The Final Team Event

2008 RULES DEFINITIONS Organisers - BCAC Ltd Officials - Any person appointed as such by the organisers. Competitor - Any angler accepted for entry into the tournament by the organisers Pair - Two anglers fishing together and registered as a pair Team - Three pairs registered together and entered into the team tournament                 The Organisers are The British Carp Angling Championships Ltd who have absolute control and discretion over the competition, the rules and any amendments thereto. Entry to the competition will by way of application to the organisers on an official competition entry form. The organisers reserve the right to refuse entry, cancel or change the dates of any event at their discretion. Refunds will be given in the event of a cancellation. Competitors may re-enter one further eliminator if they fail to qualify on their first attempt. The competition will be run on a 48hr-eliminator competition basis where anglers complete for places in a semi final. Each eliminator shall be of 48 hours in duration and the number of eliminators shall be 16. There will be a maximum of 12 pairs in each eliminator. The top three placed pairs from each eliminator will qualify for the semi-finals (except for any wild card eliminator which may be held whereby only the wining pair will qualify). 25 pairs maximum will compete in the semi finals and the top 7 place pairs will qualify to compete in the finals Competitors must arrive and register themselves no later than 09.00am on the morning of the draw. Competitors must attend the draw in person, which will take place in the event Head Quarters at 09.00am on the morning of the competition. Any pair not having at least one member present at the start of the draw will be excluded from the draw and may be excluded from the competition. In the event they are not excluded they will only be allowed to take up a remaining swim if no competitor objects. No refunds will be given for exclusion for any reason. The allocation of swims will be by way of a watercraft draw. The name of each competing pair will be placed into the draw and the first pair to be drawn shall have first choice of swim. The second name drawn shall have second choice and the draw will continue until the last pair has been drawn and has been allocated the last remaining swim. The swims will be pre-numbered prior to the draw and anglers will be allowed onto the venue prior to the draw to allow for researching of the swims. All competitors must be in possession of an Environment Agency Rod Licence which they must produce at registration or during the competition. Anyone not producing a rod licence may be excluded from the competition. The decision of the draw master is final. Once a swim number has been stated to the organisers by the competitors the choice is deemed final. Each competitor must set up his rods no further than three metres from his peg marker unless otherwise authorised by the officials. Competitors must not cast outside the limits of their swim, such limit to be marked by an imaginary line marking the middle distance between his and his neighbours peg marker. Any disputes as to the competitors casting outside the area must be reported immediately to the marshals. Marshals have the discretion to request that competitors re-cast their rods as and when directed and such request must be complied with. At the sound of the first horn competitors may commence plumbing and baiting of the swims. One hour later upon hearing the horn sound twice anglers may cast in their baited hooks. There will be no baiting up by any means other than hand/throwing stick/bait rocket or catapult. Free Baits may be attached by PVA to the rig. Wading or swimming to bait up will not be permitted. Competitors will be permitted to use a maximum of four rods per pair and must cast and bait their own rods, and play, land and unhook their own fish. No assistance shall be allowed from any person other than a member of that competitors pair. All fish caught must be reported as soon as possible to the marshals. Each fish must be witnessed by at least 1 marshal or one marshal and one competitor in the event that the parties are known to each other (other than the captor or his team mate). Each fish must be weighed on the official equipment of the marshals or it may be excluded from the results. To prevent cheating, where requested  please do not return fish to the water before they have been photographed Any photograph must be taken by the side of the peg marker and include the peg number, fish and captor. In the unlikely event of a Marshall being unable to immediately weigh and witness a captured fish it may be placed in a carp sack or net for holding until such a time as a marshal is available. The official weight will be that which is recorded by the marshal following weighing procedure by the officials using the official equipment. Retained fish must be secured as fish lost prior to the weighing are the responsibility of the competitor and will not count towards the final results. Competitors are required to possess their own carp sacks for use where permitted as in the event of a multiple capture sacks will be required to hold fish until weighing. They will not be provided by the organisers. Hooked fish should be landed without interfering with other competitor lines or they may be omitted from the final result. Any competitor who is aggrieved by another competitors hooked fish hitting his lines or disturbing his presentation must make a formal complaint to the marshals as soon as is reasonably practicable or in any case within 30 minutes. There will be an organisation appointed panel of judges before whom the complaint will be placed and who will make a decision as to whether to allow that fish to count in the final results. The judge’s decision will be final. Only officials, press, competitors and marshals are permitted to bivvy up on the banks or stay in the competition area after the hours of darkness unless authorised by the organisers. The organisers retain the right to search all competitors tackle or vehicles to combat any form of cheating or rule breaking. Anglers found cheating will banned for life from both the British Carp Angling Championships and will be reported to the promoters and the national angling press. The competition shall be decided on total weight with the pair having the greatest weight being declared the winners. In the event of a tie the pair with the most fish will be declared the winners. If the result is still tied the pair catching the biggest fish will be declared the winner. If there is still a tied position then the “fastest fish” rule applies and the angler that landed the fish first will be declared the winner. In the event that an insufficient number of fish are caught during an eliminator to fill the qualifying places or that the fish caught still cause a tie breaker situation, the competitors shall take part in a “cast off” which shall involve a test of accurate casting. The pairs adjudged as being the most accurate shall be awarded the remaining places in the final. In the unlikely event of no fish being caught at all the winners qualifiers will be decided by a test of accurate casting (details will     be given by the organisers when required) Only Leather, Common, and Mirror Carp (cyprinus carpio) will count in the competition. Should any competitor wish to leave their swim for any reason whatsoever they must ensure that their team mate holds the appropriate number of rod licences to allow the use of four rods. If the team mate does not hold such licence the competitor leaving the swim must reel their rods in and their baited hooks must be removed from the water. Swimming and wading for any reason whatsoever is prohibited. Entering the water to a maximum distance of 3 metres from the peg marker is not considered to be wading, but in any event wading above waist depth is not permitted Boats and remote control bait boats are prohibited. Smartcast echo sounders are permitted to be used from the peg marker only All lines must be cast into the water from the bank using a fishing rod and reel or pole. No other equipment will be permitted to assist the angler to cast. Each line may only have one hook attached. For conservation purposes the organisers request that barbless or micro-barb hooks are used. For a fish to count in the competition it must have been hooked squarely in the mouth. Foul hooked fish will be excluded and shall be returned to the water unregistered. Each team shall be permitted to use up to four rods and baited hooks in the water at any time and have a further two rods per person in reserve set up and ready to use. Two plumbing and two spod rods per pair are allowed in addition to the baited rods. Once used, plumbing and spod rod lines must be removed form the water. Unethical used of the spod / marker line may result in disqualification. Any team using more than the authorised number of baited rods will be immediately disqualified from the competition and reported to the promoters. Fish must be landed within 3 meters along the bank of their peg marker. Competitors are not permitted to wade or walk down the bank to land fish unless authorised to do so by an official. Entering the water to a maximum distance of 3 metres from the peg marker is not considered to be wading (as long as the waist depth rule is obeyed) Competitors must comply with requests from authorised media members at all times regarding media coverage. The sounding of a horn will signify the end of each competition whereupon competitors must immediately withdraw their lines from the water. Any fish hooked before the final horn sounds must be landed within 20 minutes of the end of the competition or it will be excluded from the final results. The awards ceremony will take place at the event HQ at the time set by the organisers. If any team is excluded from the competition no refund shall be given. If a team has to cancel their entry a refund will only be given if an alternative team can fill their reserved entry place. In the event of a cancellation an administration charge of £50.00 will be levied. For the Final the cash prize fund will be as follows  1st place  =  £10000  :  2nd place  =  £4000  :  3rd place  £1000 In addition to the main individual event there will be a team event running concurrently.   TEAM EVENT RULES Three pairs register as a team by paying the team registration fee of £100.00 and providing a team name. The team must register their pairs and the venues that they will be fishing in prior to the first pair competing in their first eliminator. The team will fish in three eliminators and pairs that qualify will represent their team in the semi finals. The team event will be decided at the semi-finals where the qualifying pairs representing a team will fish against other qualifying pairs from other teams. The winners will be the team with the highest points score. Those teams with more pairs in the semi- finals will obviously have a better chance. In the event that no teams qualify for the semi-finals, or the teams in the finals fail to catch, the winners will be the team with the highest average finishing places for their three pairs throughout the eliminators.       44.  These rules have been approved by the adjudicating committee

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