That seems utterly ridiculous to me. It rules out most people who write, surely? Unless they are the type who have never sought feedback, never sent work out and have piles of stories festering in a drawer.

Gosh, Astrea, that's ridiculously restricted. Presumably it doesn't apply to having had a letter in the local paper - but what about a poem? etc. etc.

But anyone who has ever been on the slushpile is also ineligible to enter. Is anyone who is able to write eligible?

To quote Rae, 'Cock!'

Apparently someone has followed it up on that blog post http://www.theleftroom.co.uk/?p=2137
and they've amended the rules slightly so that entrants can have published other work submitted other novels.
A bit convoluted though!

Well, it's slightly better, I suppose - but really, what a mess! Why wouldn't they check and double-check for any ambiguity before going live with the competition?

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the process, does it?

I get the impression that sometimes the magazines/agents/editors and so on come up with these competitions, without the slightest idea of what the aspiring-writer world is actually like.