Well done Andrew for finally getting a bit of life into the e-group!!

Disguised behind the comments and replies on this subject there are actually a
couple of interesting issues.

Firstly The finals slots should go to the top quartets (8 is it?) as
identified in the preliminary rounds. If, by any chance, a quartet decides not
to compete then it seems logical to allow the next in line to take their place.
Common courtesy would suggest that a quartet which decided not to compete ib the
finals should make their intention known in time. Perhaps it might be prudent
to call a meeting of the identified finalists immediately after the
preliminaries to ensure that they are all competing. In brass band competitions
a contestant who fails to show is automatically disqualified from the next years
contest - a bit draconian but a quartet would not make the same "mistake" twice!

Secondly The whole issue of open and novice quartets could be worth looking at
again. Steve makes an interesting point that a novice quartet in Oz actually
ended up winning the whole show! Under our rules that can't happen as a novice
quartet gets thrown out after the preliminaries.

I would like to suggest that we "re-work" our rules so that all quartets are
automatically entered in the open competition. After the preliminaries the top
8 (or however many we decide on) advance to the finals. Once the finals are
completed we will be able to declare the winers and runners up overall but we
will also be able to identify the top novice and geriatric quartet as well.
These latter "winners" might have made it to the finals but also might not have!

Let the discussion recommence!

Regards

Kelly Byrne


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]