Regional Bell Target Virtual League – Official Rules 

 

The Virtual League is a concept born out of the desire to compete against your peers in our sport without actually having to trek all over the second biggest county in England. This is an opt-in league so you will have to join but this will allow you to compete on a much bigger stage than your local venue currently provides. For the first time I have invited competitors from different leagues and regions to compete to make it a little more interesting. All competitors will shoot utilising Lincolnshire Bell Target rules and only these rules.

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The Virtual League is basically built on the following principles:

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1.    Each competitor competes at the home venue so anyone that decides to join the VL will have to nominate a home venue.

2.    The scores are generated from the first 3 rounds of any one event therefore if a competitor scores 25.5 in the first round, 26 in their second and 24.5 in the third then their total score would be all of these added together plus the bell tally is calculated also for these three rounds. Only the first 3 rounds count to your VL score.

3.    Each venue will have nominated and agreed beforehand qualifying events so only scores from the nominated events will count towards the Virtual League.

4.    All scores will be posted publicly in the Lincs Bell Target Facebook page for public scrutiny. The Virtual league relies on total honesty and transparency so publicly declaring the scores mitigates any of these issues to a point.

5.    All venues use the same scoring methods and systems. There are absolutely no allowances for home grown methods of scoring that differs from the rest of the community. Bells are awarded only when the bell is rung and the bell target mechanism needs resetting. All other standard rules apply.

6.    There will be potentially 6 classes you could be automatically entered into. The Overall Class which is everyone that has entered, Men’s and the Ladies which are self-explanatory , the Young Guns which are shooters 16 years old and younger, Veterans which are shooters that are 65 years of age and older and Springers which is a class outlined below.

For example Joe Bloggs is 66 years of age he would be entered into the Overall Class, the Men’s Class, and the Veterans Class. Janet Bloggs who is 14 years of age would be automatically entered into the Overall Class, Ladies Class and the Young Guns Class.

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7.    We are introducing a Springers Class for this league. This will hopefully encourage more participation from those shooters who regularly shoot with a break barrel or side cocking spring powered rifle. Now if you choose to start the Virtual League using a springer but then choose not to during the VL you will need to inform me of this so that any subsequent scores are attributed to the other classes and not into the Springer Class.

Format

The VL is will commence from October 2025 and run through to the end of February 2026.

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All 10 qualifying events at each home venue will be decided beforehand and will be published publicly.

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In order to alleviate the problem of competitors for whatever reason not being able to attend it has been decided that only the first 7 events that the competitor takes part in will constitute their score in the VL. Once a competitor completes 7 events within that particular VL then that is their league complete. It is our belief this is the method that is the fairest to all.

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If a venue has to cancel for reasons beyond their control, then that venue should be allowed to reschedule to a later date if possible. This only applies to the venue as a whole and not individual shooters

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It is hoped that the VL will be foster a sense of fun and engagement within our community. It also lends itself to a little competitiveness also but let’s be mindful that we’re here to enjoy the social aspect also so let’s conduct this VL in the spirit it was conceived in.