We took the Charmborough Ring to the Marathon again this year. Chris Giddins was organiser and secured us a great new pitch just past the 16-mile mark. The weather was gorgeous and lots of ringers turned out. We rang a few quarter peals, gave a few members of the public a go and handed out some leaflets. We featured for 10 seconds in the BBC’s coverage of the elite men

Charmborough Frame visible on the right. That’s Alison standing next to the curb cheering on the Elite Men.

(click on the still for an audio clip)

Thanks to Ed for this video. If anyone took photos of the ring at this event, we can add them to this post and also the Charmborough Trust is looking for photos for its website.

Last chance to sign up for the Training Committee’s next events: two simulator surgeries this coming Saturday 13 April. The morning session (10-1pm) will be held at Rotherhithe: please contact Andrew Clark if you’d like to book in for that session. The afternoon session (1-4pm) will be held at Stepney: please contact Elizabeth LeMoine if you’d like to book in for that session.

Working with the simulator is excellent for developing listening skills and it can be used for ringers at any level, from ringing in rounds, leading or covering accurately to learning plain hunt or a method on any number of bells – without an audience! Try it. Everyone can benefit from improving their listening and striking.

Greg has taken these rather nice pictures of St Dunstan, Stepney in the recent snow.

Stepney in the snow

More Stepney in the snow

Earlier this year, when Olympic excitement was fading, Elizabeth remembered that The Churches Conservation Trust, YMCAfit and a PR agency, Midas, had contacted  several London towers with a plan to promote the fitness benefits of bell ringing. Always looking for new ways to recruit, and wanting to capitalise on the still-fresh Olympic encouragements to get more active, Elizabeth got back in touch with Midas PR. The result has been a mad press campaign elevating the likes of Andrew Clark, Andrew Larsen and Rob Parker to near celebrity status.

Docklands ringers hosted 5 newspapers, 3 of them national, and added lots of press cuttings to our scrapbook. Some links below will take you direct to the newspaper’s website, but where this is not available, we’re told by Midas PR that we can’t post scanned copies of newspaper clippings on the internet due to rights issues, so if you’re interested we can email you a pdf copy.

Southark News, 22 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

Southwark News Cartoon, 22 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

South London Press, 23 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

The Evening Standard, 29 November 2012 http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/free-bellringing-classes-rope-in-pupils-aiming-to-boost-fitness-8367731.html

The Times, 3 December 2012 (request a pdf copy)

The Mirror, 6 December 2012 http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/could-bell-ringing-fitness-classes-help-1474421

I held this post back because The Sun was due to publish last week, but didn’t. We’re still hoping.

In the meantime, as part of the national Midas PR campaign, ringers from around the country have discussed the pleasures of ringing on many BBC radio and television shows, including the Jeremy Vine Show (Monday 3 December), BBC Sheffield and BBC Breakfast TV. Roger Booth reports this has a measurable impact to interest: a surge of hits to The Ringing Foundation’s Discover Bellringing website.

So, a big thank you goes out to all of our band members who assisted with press requests or tolerated the disruptions to our practices. We hope to have contributed to a rise in the numbers recruited to ring in 2013.

Andrew arrived at the press session dressed for action!