RULE CLARIFICATION 04jan11

A very difficult issue has arisen, because we have had so much bad weather and so many cancelled meetings with completely blank days, loads of players have with a month to go gone dormy. There are always a few that drop out a bit early for whatever reason but this time we have over 50% already in this position.

So recently one or two players have been sending in, in a single text message, a main nap with a follow on selection in case their first selection is a non-runner.

Clearly we have not had this situation before and so we don't have a precedent or rule to cover this circumstance.

The general principal that we have always adopted is that we can't change the rules half way through a competition everyone who enters must know the rules before they start. So as this circumstance complies with all the current rules and to make sure we are sticking with our main principle of 'not making up new rules as we go along' we have, in principal, to accept this is valid and that in general a reserve submitted in this manner should count as a valid selection should the first selection be a non-runner.

However the rules do say that 'in the event of a non-runner any replacement nap must be submitted before the 1.30pm cut off' and so on that basis if the first nap selected is still scheduled to run at the 1.30 cut off it would not have been possible to submit a replacement and so our interpretation is that it is therefore not possible to submit a reserve and comply with this rule.

So if the first selection is declared to run at the 1.30 cut off and subsequently fails to run (e.g. withdrawn at the post) then the reserve selection cannot be valid and will not count.

Clearly this interpretation needs to be communicated to everyone so we have and maintain a level playing field for all so I will be sending out a text to summarise all this.

Please note that we intend to (subject to final approval) introduce a new rule ready for the next competition making it clear that in future a second selection will only be a valid nap if it is submitted in the period after the first selection has been declared a non-runner and before 1.30pm.

Hope everyone understands, it is probable that the above interpretation is what we really meant but as it doesn't actually say that we think this solution is fairest for all and will allow those accidently caught dormy because of the weather to protect against wasted bets.