2026 River City Open (Lvl III Sanctioned Match)

Pistol New Zealand Policy C1a – Competitions – Conditions of Entry
Purpose: To specify the MINIMUM conditions of entry for clubs hosting, National or Island Championship matches. Addition of these or similar conditions to ANY match entry forms, listed on the PNZ website is a compulsory requirement.

Conditions of Entry

1. Firearms Licence Requirement
It is a condition of participation in this event that:

• If you are over 16 years of age, you are the holder of a current New Zealand Firearms Licence.
• If you are under 16 years of age, you are accompanied by and will be participating under the supervision of a holder of a current New Zealand Firearms Licence, with an appropriate endorsement for the firearms being used.
• PNZ Juniors who are over 16 and have applied for a FAL and have a junior proficiency badge are able to compete at PNZ matches. They will be under the supervision of a holder of a current NZ Firearms Licence.

In either case, either a standard or a visitor’s Firearms Licence is acceptable.

At the registration for this event you (or your supervisor, if you are under 16 years of age) will be required to produce your Firearms Licence. If this is not produced then participation in the event will be denied.

2. Refusal of a participant’s entry to an event
The following is a suggested procedure that must be added to an entry form under ‘conditions of entry’:

If the club receives a complaint in writing on any matter that relates to entry of a match, the club committee will:

1. Establish the seriousness and validity of the complaint, and will assign a match sub- Committee to further investigate the complaint and report back.
2. If valid and reasonable, the committee will write to the person outlining details of the rejection of entry, who, what, why, when, and how, and produce any evidence received or any investigation report made. This will occur with 48 hours of their entry being received.
3. The letter will indicate any breaches of the club rules and give them a copy of those rules.
4. The club committee will ask for a response in writing within 5 days (and no later than 48 hours before the start of the match) and/or to appear in person in front of the match committee to answer the allegations made. The letter will indicate that if no response is received within 5 days (and no later than 48 hours before the start of the match) then the match committee will make a decision based on the evidence it has before it.
5. The match committee will then make a decision citing reasons and an assessment of the evidence before it, referring both to the complaint and any explanation from the affected person and send this decision in writing back to the affected person.
6. The person affected will have a right of appeal to have the matter reviewed by an independent person assigned from another club if needed.
7. The decision will have reasons as to why the person is being excluded from the event and this decision will then be final. Should the decision be made that the person can partake of the event then no late entry fees will be charged. The participant will have a minimum of 48 hours’ notice that they may attend the event.

Failure to carefully follow these guidelines could put your club at risk of legal action, and may result in PNZ applying sanctions (such as refusing to sanction future PNZ matches at your club).

Note to the above process:
Complaints cannot be anonymous, unless very good reasons are given to the match committee for the identity of the complainant to be kept private.

In order for this process of natural justice to occur all competitions need to have a minimum close off date of at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the competition/event. If an organizing committee do not wish to have a closing date or decide to accept any late entries after the two week cutoff then they must accept all entrants.

If the event can only host a maximum number of entries this must be pre-advertised as per the competition entry form. Exceeding the maximum number of entries can only be used as a reason if this is the case.

IPSC Handgun Competition Rules – Rule 6.5.1:
All competitors and Match Officials must be individual members of the IPSC Region in which they normally reside. Residency is defined as the Region where the individual is ordinarily domiciled for a minimum of 183 days of the twelve months immediately preceding the month in which the match begins. Ordinarily domiciled condition is a physical presence test and does not relate to citizenship or to any address of convenience. The 183 days need not be consecutive or the most recent 183 days of the twelve-month period.

Conditions of Entry:
If you are the holder of a New Zealand Firearms Licence and a current financial member of Pistol New Zealand, you must also be a current financial member of IPSC with Pistol New Zealand.