First milestone on Triples

After ringing a Quarter Peal of Plain Bob Minor I set myself some goals, the most challenging of which was to master something on 8 bells. While I cannot claim to have achieved mastery, I have satisfied myself with ringing a Quarter Peal (recorded on Campanophile) of Grandsire Triples in a time of 44 minutes.

It takes eight people to ring Grandsire Triples and I could not have done it without the kind assistance of seven people willing to give up their time on a Friday evening to help me ring this for the first time.

Once again I have to decide what I want to tackle next. I will continue with Stedman, both Doubles and Triples, but I'll have to think a while about what new to tackle.

Nice evening ring at Church Lench

Some days nothing seems to go right . . . luckily this is to some extent balanced out by days when things go swimmingly! Last Saturday was one of those good days when I had a really enjoyable and successful evening ringing with the Four Shires Guild at the Church of All Saints, Church Lench. The weather was bad with freezing fog which may explain why only 9 ringers turned out. I rang pretty much my entire repertoire of methods including touches of  Plain Bob Doubles and Plain Bob Minor but also managed a touch of Stedman Doubles and rang the treble for Cambridge. The only method missing from my limited repertoire was Grandsire. I then ventured into new territory ringing the treble for Original Minor and the Tenor for All Saints (rung in recognition that the church is All Saints).

I have rung here a couple of times before but this occasion was certainly my most enjoyable one. The bells are not the easiest ones that I have rung and there is quite a few odd noises from up above when ringing several of the bells.

A ringing milestone

Over the last year I have achieved a number of milestones in my bell ringing pastime. This weekend I was home alone so joined the Four Shires Guild for their weekly practice which was held at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Chipping Norton.

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The weather was cold and threatened more snow which may explain why there were only 12 people there, then again closing the road at Moreton in Marsh may have deterred some ringers travelling from the Northwest, I almost turned back myself.

During 2010 I would like to develop enough skill to be able to ring at least one method on 8 bells so the Church of St Mary the Virgin with a nice, easy to ring, peal of 8 bells provided an opportunity to practice. While I rang cover for a number of methods I also got to ring inside and practice. The initial goal I set myself for 2010 was to ring Grandsire Triples and I managed a touch without any mistakes. Striking may have been a bit flaky but I made it through. This was encouraging but not a great milestone as I've been gradually been improving my competence at Grandsire Triples for a couple of months. However, I took the opportunity to try a plain course of Stedman Triples and was rather pleased with myself that I made it through two plain courses on the treble on what was my first ever attempt -- Milestone 1!

I was pretty content with the evening but when the final ring was going to be Plain Bob Major I figured I would give it a go. I can ring Plain Bob Minor and know, in theory, how it extends to Plain Bob Major but as I have already learnt moving from 6 to 8 bells is much harder than might be expected. I made it through a plain course on bell #3, my first ever attempt, again -- Milestone 2! I must admit that I am aware that I did make a mistake but recovered to reach the end.

A really enjoyable evenings ringing and my thanks to those who I rang with for their patience and support.

Another Bob Minor milestone

I have spent much of this year trying to achieve some level of competence at ringing Plain Bob Minor. I achieved a major milestone by completing a Quarter Peal (recorded on Campanophile) in a time of 40 minutes.

It takes six people to ring Bob Minor and I could not have done it without the kind assistance of five people willing to give up their time to help me ring this for the first time. This is the third time this year that I have rung a Quarter Peal, each of which was a first of a kind for me, and I think that the willingness of people to help others progress is one of the aspects of ringing that I appreciate the most.

I now need to decide what to try and learn next. I am hopeful that I will be able to speed up the rate at which I can learn new things so will attempt to tackle three things in parallel. (1) Consolidate Grandsire Doubles, hopefully this should not prove too difficult of take very long. (2) Learn Grandsire Triples, a more challenging goal since it is rung on 8 bells. (3) Learn another Doubles method, I'm leaning towards Stedman Doubles since it widely rung around here.

A Plain Bob Minor milestone

For the last 6 month's I have been trying to get to grips with a new ringing method, Plain Bob Minor. I thought it would be a relatively straightforward exercise to build on Plain Bob Doubles and to an extent this proved to be the case. However, there proved to be additional, unanticipated, challenges. One extra working bell doesn't sound like much but going from 4 to 5 is a 25% increase. No Tenor to lead off, another challenge. The dodges are all with different bells. Singles as well as bobs.

During the last couple of weeks I have managed a number of touches of Bob Minor but always felt a sense of relief when arriving at the end. On Thursday 9th July I feel that I finally got over the hump, I rang a touch where everything went smoothly and when "that's all" was called I felt a sense of disappointment rather than relief. I was really enjoying myself!

First Quarter Peal "inside"

Mayday sees a milestone in my bellringing pursuit, for the first time I rang inside for a Quarter Peal. The achievement is already posted on Campanophile but I want to thank the five who rang with me and helping me achieve my first.

It was quite an experience and I was not at all sure that I would be able to ring the 1260 changes without any mistakes. I must have been nervous because the evening did not get of to a very auspicious start, I started to ring up without first having made any coils! After exactly 42 minutes we finished. That works out at exactly one change every two seconds. I wouldn't say that the time flew, but it did seem to pass more quickly than when I rang my first ever Quarter Peal on the treble though this too took 42 minutes.

When we had rung the bells back down again we adjourned to the Brandy Cask for a celebratory drink.