Category Archives: Peals & Quarters

Andrew reaches Level 5

By ringing inside to a quarter of Grandsire Doubles at Isle of Dogs, Andrew Booth has become the 28th person to achieve Level 5 of Learning the Ropes and qualifies for a prize under the ART Awards scheme.

The Association of Ringing Teachers is now moving out of its set up phase. Going forward the focus will be less on delivering ITTS courses and is shifting to supporting the 250+ and growing number of members who have gained Accreditation. Thanks to the generosity of various parties, the inaugural ART Awards will be presented at the Annual Conference at Loughborough Bell-foundry on Saturday 12th March 2016.

One of the Awards is for all those who have achieved Learning the Ropes Level 5, who will be invited to a centrally-organised weekend event: The Learning the Ropes Masterclass. This will be run in the second half of 2016 by a team of hand-picked, top flight ringers and will be designed to provide opportunities that are not normally available locally. Travel and accommodation will be arranged/paid for participants based in the mainland UK.

Andrew thanks all those who have helped him reach this milestone over the last couple of years and with twelve of our other ringers at various stages on the pathway, we hope that they too will qualify for similar awards over the next year or two. We look forward to celebrating their success.

http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=984637

IMG_0957
The band after the quarter, Andy, Mike, Morag, Drew, Bridget, Roger.

Roger

Bermondsey band score quarter of Cambridge Surprise Major

Well, almost a Bermondsey Tuesday night band – Morag is still recovering from her accident and hip operation, but Tony Faulkner from Poplar stood in to enable us to score the quarter at Isle of Dogs on Sunday evening!

A previous attempt at Rotherhithe a fortnight ago was not successful, and we had met an hour and half below the service to allow time for a false start, but we scored the quarter without stopping. This meant that we finished almost half an hour before the service and needed to ring up to it. It was the first of Cambridge Major inside for Colin.

Over the coming months we plan to arrange a regular programme of quarters and special practices at Rotherhithe and Isle of Dogs to enable more of our Tuesday night band (e.g. Ashley, Eva, Drew, Jonathan and Rob), to progress and score quarters of Grandsire/Plain Bob Triples and Plain Bob Little Bob, and Kent Treble Bob Minor/Major, working towards ringing Cambridge on the treble and possibly inside. We also need to arrange some more of Cambridge Major, so that we can ring it without any trips and polish our 8 bell striking.

In the longer term, once we have grown the pool of people who can ring these methods confidently, we can introduce other methods such as Yorkshire into the regular repertoire, but we will be careful not to spread ourselves too thinly, or run before we can walk. Maintaining a surprise band is like a pyramid and this needs to be built on firm foundations, otherwise it becomes too slender and can collapse. However we have a number of other people at the base and we look forward to scoring quite a few doubles quarters with them too.

http://www.bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=359332

St Peter’s Day at Walworth

It was such a treat to have the bells ringing out so beautifully for St Peter’s Day on Sunday – thanks so much to you and the team! It really made a difference to the festive feel of the day, and I hope really did alert parishioners to the significance of the day and indeed of the procession making its way around the parish. It’d be lovely to combine again at some point. With joy,

Father Andrew Moughtin-Mumby
Rector of St Peter’s, Walworth
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On Sunday 29th June, there was a large congregation to hear the bells, as we attempted a quarter peal of Plain Bob Minor as the procession left the church after the festival mass. Eva was ringing the treble, and it would have been Eva’s first of minor, also Drew’s who was ringing the 5th. As St Peter’s are so light and manageable, you are able to do things which would not be possible on heavier rings of bells.

The ringing soon settled down, but we lost the quarter after about 300 changes as two bells crossed over. We did try again, but as often happens, the ringing the second time was not as good, so we decided to ring the bells down after about half an hour’s ringing. Never the less the parish appreciated their bells being rung, especially as nowadays they are rarely rung, and not on Sundays. It was also good to probe the boundaries, and certainly the band could have scored a quarter. It shows that we can move on to ring more minor, rather than so much doubles.

Reading the plaque in the ringing room, it was also the 13th anniversary to the day of the completion of the restoration and the bells being dedicated, so perhaps there will be better luck next time!

Walworth

Drew rings his first quarter inside

Yesterday Drew rang his first quarter peal inside. He rang very well, only slipping off the line a few times, but quickly getting back on the line. This also means that he has now achieved ‘Learning the Ropes’ Level 4. Thanks to all those who have helped Drew progress to this milestone, including those who have helped with the recent Saturday Morning Ringing School sessions, and the ringers at Moor House and Farnham. It was particularly appropriate that it was rung at Stone, following his grandfather’s funeral there.

http://www.bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=338025

Roger

Tueday night band make progress

Members of the Tuesday night band at Bermondsey and Rotherhithe have made significant progress in March and April, quarter peals having been attempted and scored most weeks, either as part of the Tuesday night specials, or Sunday service ringing at Rotherhithe and Isle of Dogs:

Andrew Larsen has rung his first quarter of Kent Treble Bob Minor on the treble.

Joe Tilley has rung his first of Kent Treble Bob Minor inside.

Eva Redei has scored her first of Doubles on the Treble, and followed this up buy ringing the treble to another in two Doubles methods and the treble to another of Plain Bob Doubles

Jonathan Gregson has also rung his first of Plain Bob Doubles inside, and followed this up by ringing his first of Grandsire Doubles inside and Plain Bob Minor on the Treble

Louise Booth has also conducted her first quarter of mixed doubles.

In addition to these firsts, many other ringers have taken the opportunity to ring and several have also practiced their conducting skills; a total of eighteen ringers having participated (Harry Baulcombe, Andrew Booth, Louise Booth, Roger Booth, Luke Camden, Andrew Clark, Simon Fraser, Colin Friend, Jonathan Gregson, Gillian Harris, Richard Hensman, Andrew Larsen, Elizabeth LeMoine, Nolan Marchand, Eva Redei, Trisha Shannon, Joe Tilley and Mike Todd).

Besides the ones that have been scored, we have also lost quarters of Plain Bob Minor and Plain Bob Triples. Perhaps someone is sending us a message, but over the coming months we will make the effort to help more people move on to ringing Minor and Triples, although we will still need to continue ringing quite a lot of doubles, not only to refine our striking, but also enable those who are currently ringing the tenor behind, or hunting the treble, to move on. We also need to cater for those who are coming through the system and who will soon be ready to attempt their first quarter.

In addition to the quarters, Guseppina and Luigi Vincenti have also achieved their ‘Learning the Ropes’ Level 1 and are now working towards Level 2. There are several other people at the same stage, so it looks like that there is still more progress to be made and many more quarters to be rung.

Roger