Issue 25, January 2003

Contributions for Issue 26 are needed before February 10th, 2003

Address for Strike Notes :
, 51 The Plain, Brailsford, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, DE6 3BZ

DERBY DISTRICT ANNUAL MEETING 11th January

Three towers, a service, tea, and meeting provided a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon & evening. Some highlights:

Seeing the eagerness and enthusiasm of a quartet of youngsters from Sutton on the Hill at their first meeting.
The cosy ringing rooms at Etwall and Sutton.
The delightful organ entertainment by Walter Soar before the service.
A truly scrumptious tea.
Maurice Starkey’s announcement of his engagement to Pam.

Nearly sixty people crowded into Sutton’s village hall for the tea and meeting. The District secretary gave a comprehensive review of the year during which the good general health of ringing in the District was evidenced by the support for the wide variety of events that had taken place. Nine new members were welcomed to the District.

Maurice (who revealed that he had become a committee member unexpectedly by attending a meeting and being elected, thanks to a local Ashbourne cleric at the time), has decided, fifteen years later, to step down. The meeting expressed their thanks to him for his contribution over such a long period.

Steve Harpham, from Mugginton, was elected as the new Chairman.
Other Committee members elected were:

Secretary:	Chris Willis
Ringing Master:	Alec Humphrey
Education Committee:	Gill Hughes  John Heaton
General Committee:	Elaine Baines
District Committee:	Jenny Booth  John Booth  Graeme Hughes

Index

Index

A Minor Achievement

Each year our Tower Captain at Brailsford, Mary Cox, asks us to set ourselves ringing objectives. I started ringing only 5 years ago but since my first Quarter, in my mind, a Peal has represented a distant peak. So, for 2002, I wrote it in as one of my objectives. Fortunately, Mary and other members of our band agreed to support me in my endeavours.

Perhaps naively, I had assumed that I would treble or tenor as I had for my first Quarters. However, I discovered that there was no enthusiasm to ring a Peal of Doubles and that the Treble should be “the most reliable ringer”. I was therefore destined to ring inside and the chosen method was Plain Bob Minor.

John Heaton of Derby Cathedral, agreed to prepare us and to conduct. It is apparent that we were serious as our preparation included 15 Quarters at four different towers. I rang Quarters on 2, 3, 4 & 5 but wisely, it was decided that I should retreat to one of the lighter bells for the Peal attempt.

The date finally set was 30th December 2002, hopefully just in time to meet my objective. I think that John was about as confident of my success at a first attempt as my driving instructor many years ago. However, I have always tried to offset any ability shortfall by tenacity if not sheer bloody mindedness. I was still pleasantly surprised to hear those golden words “That’s all”.

It may not be unique, but thanks to John’s patience and prompting and Mary’s support, 3 of us, Keith Baines, Chris Booth and myself, achieved first Peals, ringing inside, on 30th December. The remaining member of the band, Keith's wife Elaine, had suffered with a virus for several weeks prior to Christmas but bravely rose from her sick bed to ring the second.

I don’t know about the others but for me it was definitely my best Christmas present!
Rex North

BRAILSFORD All Saints

Monday 30 December 2002 2h49 (10 cwt)

5040 Plain Bob Minor (7 different extents)

1	Mary C Cox
2	Elaine Baines
3	Rex S North
4	Keith Baines
5	Christopher J Booth
6	John E Heaton (C)

First Peal: 3, 4, 5.

Index

Making Sense of Place Notation (1)

The other day I gave another ringer this sequence of figures,

We are all shown, when we begin to venture beyond called changes, how to write out plain hunt. Two basic steps are used.

Starting from rounds –

Step one is to cross over the first pair of bells – 1&2, then every subsequent pair – 3&4, 5&6 and so on.

Step two is to leave the first bell in place and cross over the next pair of bells – 1&4, then the next pair and so on.
These two steps are repeated alternately until rounds are produced. Six repetitions of both steps are needed for plain hunt on six.
If you write out the first three or four rows of plain hunt on six you will be able to link the numbers in the first two rows with three crosses. The place notation for this step in writing out plain hunt is referred to as “cross”. In a similar way the numbers in the second and third rows can be linked. With a vertical line linking the number that is first in both rows, two crosses, and another vertical line linking the number that is last in both of these two rows. This is called “one-six” and when written down it looks like the number sixteen.

Using this shorthand, plain hunt on six bells can be defined as

and if we were to write out a lead of Plain Bob Minor we could define it as

However we can abbreviate the shorthand even further, this is because if we ignore the last digits, the 12, the method – in common with all regular methods – is palindromic, the same forwards as backwards. All regular methods have an odd number of terms in their place notation before their lead head so the shortened place notation must include the notation of the half lead, which is shown in bold type above, when normally the hunt bell will lie behind. The place notation for Plain Bob Minor now becomes x.16.x.16.x.16. We then add two things, the code for the last row, the lead head (lh12), and the row that is produced at the treble’s backstroke lead 135264, and this is the result:

Here is another method with it’s place notation written at the side – this is how they are shown in the Ringing World Diary.

	123456
X
	214365
14
	241356
X
	423165
36
	243615
X
	426351
16
	462531
	645213
	465123
	641532
	614523
	165432
12
	164523

This method is called Hereward Bob Minor, the place notation for it is

See if you can successfully write out a lead of Wenlock Bob Minor, its notation is

Alec Humphrey

Index

Carols at Doveridge

Instead of a conventional District meeting, a Carol Service was arranged for December 14th at Doveridge. Doveridge church was a welcome haven from the drizzle and blustery wind as we arrived. The fragrant smell of Gill Hughes’ mulled wine increased the warmth of the welcome still further!

It was good to see many members from a good selection of district towers. Ringing on the five bells included rounds and call changes for the less experienced, plus more adventurous Doubles methods for those who wanted to try them. During the Carol Service, lessons and seasonal poems were read by various ringers interspersed with a selection of Christmas carols.

Everyone then retired to the Octagon to enjoy a plentiful supply of mince pies and the afore-mentioned mulled wine – delicious!

The afternoon finished with more ringing under Alec Humphrey’s watchful eye.

Thanks to Gill Hughes, Chris Willis and Margaret Smith for their organisation and work arranging this event.
Pat Halls

Index

Training weekend in Armidale

While I was staying in Sydney with my daughter recently, I was invited to participate in a training weekend to be held at Armidale, which is also in New South Wales. This was on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the bells having been installed there. Apart from one person, all the Armidale ringers have learned to ring since the new bells were put in. Enid Roberts and I set off from Sydney with Carol Quinn, the Armidale ringer who had learned to ring in Sydney some years before. To get to our destination, we had a seven hour drive north! This was an interesting experience in itself as, apart from seeing some beautiful and very varied scenery, we also went through a bush fire, driving less than eight feet away from flames 10 to 15 feet high. Quite scary – but the alternative was a 50 mile diversion. Once at Armidale, we were warmly greeted by the other ringers, who had changed their normal Thursday practice to Friday so that we could have an extra session with them. There were two sessions of ringing, each lasting two hours, on the Saturday and we also rang with them for the morning service on the Sunday. Two other Sydney ringers also went to help – one flying up specially for the weekend.

The thing that really impressed me was the enthusiasm of the ringers and their determination to succeed. They could ring Plain Bob Minor well and some of them could cope with Grandsire Triples – and one of them had learned Cambridge Minor so she could try that while we were there. Some of them could ring St. Clement’s too. While we were there they all made significant progress. We taught them to ring Little Bob Minor, which none of them had rung before – and by the time we left they managed to ring courses of it with their own band. When you know that they are over 200 miles from the nearest tower, you realise just how much they make of every opportunity to learn anything to do with ringing. The young people who had Saturday jobs still managed to find time to come to at least two of the sessions. And one woman, who lives four hours drive away, came on both Friday and Saturday!

So, if you are wondering about how you are going to make progress, take comfort in just how easy it is here, by comparison, to go to a tower five, ten or fifteen miles down the road to join in a practice night or a district event. We don’t realise how lucky we are!
Pat Halls

Index

Three in a Row

On October 31st 1970 there was a gift day at Derby Cathedral. Provost Ron Beddoes declared his intention of sitting outside the Cathedral collecting money until £1000 had been raised. While he did this the bells would ring to attract people’s attention. Much publicity was given to this and it was broadcast that the bells would not cease until the desired amount had been raised. The ringers played their part by successfully ringing three peals consecutively, without the bells standing between each peal; one team of ringers, having finished their peal, passed the ropes on to the next band who arrived in the ringing chamber after the bells had come round. First there was a peal of Grandsire Caters, conducted by Stephen Ivin. This was followed by a peal of Stedman Caters conducted by Jack Millhouse and the final peal was one of Plain Bob Royal called by Clive Thrower.
PH

Index

Diary Dates: January - February 2003

20th January	Six bell practice at Brailsford at 7:30  Little Bob & London Surprise Minor
25th January	Surprise Major practice at St Peters, Derby, at 6:30.  Cambridge, Lincolnshire, Pudsey, Wembley.
1st February	Spliced Treble Bob Minor at the Cathedral
8th February	Evening meeting at Duffield
15th February	Training Day. Am Cambridge minor, pm Cambridge major
22nd February	Association Dinner at Sitwell Arms, Renishaw

Index

Go to Derby Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers