East Molesey enter Striking Challenge at Isle Dogs

It was a hot sticky evening on Thursday and six ringers from East Molesey came to Christ Church Isle of Dogs to join our local band practice and also enter our challenge striking competition. They turned up on time, all smartly dressed in matching T-shirts and although apprehensive about their abilities, they were keen to have a go and find out what they could do to improve their striking.

Isle of Dogs lies at the corner of four different ringing associations (Middlesex, Essex, Kent and Surrey) and does not, therefore, have the same benefits as towers located more centrally. We set up the competition to encourage ringers from towers in the four local Districts to come to our practices and help develop our local band.

We have a simulator, connected to all of the bells, so we can record two touches of 120 changes (even if only call changes) in Abel and the file can be marked by the 12 bell competition striking analysis software (CAS). The competition is now in its third year and teams have until 21 December to come and enter for the prize of a magnificent cup and a bottle of champagne. As the judge is a computer, it is 100% consistent each time it is used, and produces a percentage score which enables easy comparison.

East Molesey are the first team to come this year and we look forward to welcoming further teams over the next six months. We were able to play back the ringing to the East Mosley team and, using the graphics on screen, explain some simple things that they could practice in order to improve their striking. We were also able to examine the accuracy statistics for each ringer, and send them a printout afterwards.

The East Molesey team are probably typical of the majority of Sunday service bands, and having seen the benefits are now considering installing a simulator in their own tower on at least one of the bells. Although currently near the bottom of our league table, they left confident that with practice they could move up the league table significantly when they return next year.

97% Kingston upon Thames 1 (2016)

96% Kingston upon Thames 2 (2016)

96% Kingston upon Thames 1 (2015)

94% Kingston upon Thames 2 (2015)

88% Crayford 1

87% Crayford 2

83% Erith 1

81% Erith 2

80% Bermondsey/Rotherhithe (2015)

78% Bermondsey/Rotherhithe (2015)

75% Bermondsey/Rotherhithe (2016)

71% East Molesey 2

70% Lewisham 1

67% Lewisham 2

66% East Molesey 1

Stepney Band Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Most of the current Stepney band on the day. Missing are Alan, Daniel and Rebecca

Not long after moving to the area, a chance discussion between Elizabeth LeMoine (herself a novice ringer of less than two years) and churchwarden Vera Hullyer prompted an invitation to start a local band. The current Stepney band held its first practice in May 2007.

The Party in the Parish Room

On 13 May 2017 the band held a 10th anniversary party, attended by current and past members, supporters, members of the clergy and congregation – including Vera, whose husband Charlie worked for the foundry – Vera brought a wonderful bundle of related newspaper clippings. Representing the previous band, we were delighted to welcome Liz, Peter, Matthew and Heather Rayner who have been great supporters of the current band, especially appreciated in the early days when there was a lot of teaching to be done.

Vera, Benji and Margaret

Chapman, Peter, Jenny and Andrew examining Vera’s album of Foundry press clippings and literature

Tower Captains past and current: Jonathan, Chris, Elizabeth, Kevin, Joe

A quarter peal was rung that included all of the Tower Captains of the current band. There was too much food, the ice cream van playing ‘Oranges and Lemons’ stopped by, there was open ringing, speeches and lots of photos. Perhaps the latter speak best about the afternoon’s celebration.

The spread, with ‘Oranges and Lemons’ flowers

Joe, current tower captain, and Gareth

Anna’s amazing Oranges-and-Lemons-themed Lemon Drizzle birthday cake

Julian gave tower tours to interested passers by. Heather is now learning to ring with us!

Chapman and Matthew on 9 and 10

With great thanks to everyone who came and to all the Docklands, Middlesex and local ringers who have supported and continue to support the current Stepney band through its first 10 years – and here’s to the next 10!

Photos by Heather Rayner and Éva Rédei.

One photographer captures the other

New talent coming through

The Isle of Dogs quarter peal band (l to r) Emma, Roger, Andrew, Graham, Rod, Paul.

We have quite a few ringers working their way up the ladder, and it can be quite difficult arranging quarter peal attempts for them. However, as the first few become more experienced it becomes easier and easier, as you have a larger pool of ringers to draw on.

This weekend we had enough ringers to attempt four quarter peals, two on Saturday morning at Walworth, either side of an Ordination service, and then two simultaneous attempts on Sunday evening at Isle of Dogs at Rotherhithe.

The weekend got off with a hiccup as we lost the first attempt for Bob Doubles less than 100 changes from the end. This would have been Paul Harding’s first inside. After the service we went for Grandsire Triples, but this had to be cut short as the ordination service had over-run by about 45 minutes, and four of the band needed to get away to ring for a wedding at Isle of Dogs. But we did ring a very good touch of 336 changes – a quarter of a quarter!

The wedding at Isle of Dogs was also quite unexpected as the bride only rang us up at 8.30 that morning asking us if we could ring. There had been a mix up over the booking and we had not been asked, however she was really keen to have the bells rung for her big day. And if the bride goes to that trouble at 8.30 am on her wedding day what can you do? Fortunately, by the miracle of the internet and the number of ringers we have to call on, we were able to field a team of seven ringers ready to ring out at 2.00pm. The bride and the vicar were very pleased indeed!

On Sunday Emma Roberts rang her first quarter by ringing the treble at Isle of Dogs to Bob Doubles very well indeed, and Melanie Powell rang her first quarter of Grandsire Doubles inside at Rotherhithe, at more or less the same time.

All things considered, quite a successful weekend, and we look forward to ringing more quarters more frequently from now on, especially as we had eighteen different ringers take part in the four attempts, and we have a number of other people waiting in the pipeline to progress and join in. Exciting times.

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Foundry visit planned

Docklands Ringers are planning a visit to Loughborough to Taylor’s – for a tour of the foundry and museum, and an opportunity to ring on the foundry’s bells. We hope to be able to fit in another ring too during the day.

The visit will be on Wednesday 25th October (i.e. during half-term) and we will probably travel by train. The foundry tour will cost £10 (children 6-16 £5) – on top of this you will need to allow for your train ticket and a pub lunch.

This is a long time away, but the foundry tours are very popular and are booked well in advance, so please let Morag (moragtodd@gmail.com) know as soon as possible if you would like to take part in this day out. We’ll then be able to confirm the booking with Taylor’s.

Luigi scores quarter on treble to reach level 3

By scoring a quarter of Doubles on the Treble for the evening service on 5^th March at Christchurch, Isle of Dogs, Luigi Vicenti has completed Level 3 of ART’s ‘Learning the Ropes’ training scheme.

Level 3 takes ringers from call changes, building on kaleidoscope exercises through to ringing the treble and covering to methods. The level is passed when the ringer can do this sufficiently well to score two quarter peals at least one of which must be the treble to Doubles (or on higher numbers). The second can be ringing the tenor behind. Other activities include raising and lowering in peal.

Lugi and Guseppina started learning to ring in early 2013, as a result of the ‘Ring for Fitness’ publicity campaign initiated by the Churches Conservation Trust, in conjunction with the Ringing Foundation and Association of Ringing Teachers (ART). Their closest tower is St Mary Magdalene Woolwich, although the nearest with regular ringing is St Alfege, Greenwich. They have been regular visitors to the Tuesday practices at St James Bermondsey over the past four years.

We look forward to helping them complete the remaining two levels of Learning the Ropes, by which time they will be ringing Plain Bob and Grandsire inside to quarter peal standard. We also look forward to helping our other learners and visitors to achieve more passes over the coming months.

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