SENIOR FOURS RULES

The competition shall be open to individuals whose clubs are affiliated to Bowls England. The four players must be members of an affiliated club within the same County. Players are required to play from the same club, and where applicable where they play their National Championships from. Players entering National Championships in another country are not eligible to participate.

Each player shall have reached their 55th birthday by 1st April in the year of the competition.

Each game shall be 18 ends, 2 bowls each player. In the event of the scores being equal when all the ends have been played, an extra end must be played until a result is reached.

The Challenger (named player) must offer their opponent within 72 hours of the closing date of the previous round at least 3 dates for play, one must be a weekend. The offering of 2 different start times on the same day does not count as 2 dates, a minimum of 48 hours notice is required for any dates offered to be eligible. The time for commencing a match shall be mutually agreed but no team/side shall be compelled to accept a time earlier than 6.00 pm Monday to Friday, or 9.30 am on a weekend, or later than 6.30 pm on any day. On 1st round ties only, dates do not need to be offered until 21 days before the closing date of the round, after this point the aforesaid conditions will apply.

The opponent or opposing team shall, within 24 hours of receipt of the challenge, reply and accept one of the dates offered.

If a challenge has not been made within the specified period, the opponent shall become the challenger and make all match arrangements including the offering of dates and choice of venue. No extension of the closing date will be granted for any reason.

If a player/team fail to appear and be ready within 30 minutes after the agreed time for the tie, the opponent may claim a “walk over”.

In the event of no decision being reached in any round owing to exceptional weather conditions, and where this makes it impossible to re-arrange a fixture before the completion date, the score in uncompleted games in which 5 ends or more have been played will stand. If the score is a tie, then the result will be decided by the toss of a coin. Matches not started, or matches with less than 5 ends being completed will also be decided by a toss of a coin, or by mutual agreement.

Substitutes – the 4 players taking part in the first match constitutes the original team and shall normally play together throughout the competition. One and the same player may be used as a substitute at any time, providing that they have not already played or entered the same competition.

Results of games must be advised to Competition Secretary and within 24 hours of the tie being played.