Thinking allowed

more Stedman

Since that first suc­cess at call­ing a simple touch of Sted­man Triples, I have called sev­er­al more touches. The next touch to learn, after the ini­tial 2 Qs is Q & S twice (or S & Q twice, depend­ing which bell you are ringing).

An S call, is a pair of bobs, the first called when you are dodging 4–5 down and about to go in slow, and the second called 6 blows later (at the hand­stroke lead of the first whole turn). This con­trasts with a Q call which is a pair of bobs called as you are about to go in quick, and at the hand­stroke in 2nds place after leading.

Sted­man has a couple of oth­er places to call pairs of bobs that leave you unaf­fected by the call. Each of these pairs occurs dur­ing the slow work, and they are labelled ‘H’ and ‘L’.

H is a pair of bobs called either side of the first half turn. L is a pair of bobs called dur­ing the last whole turn.

Of course, it is also pos­sible to call bobs in 6–7 up and down, and in 4–5 up. But in this piece we will look at the bobs called dur­ing the slow work. And we will look at the way that the Sted­man front­work is constructed.

Sted­man front­work, we recall, con­sists of altern­ate ‘sixes’ of for­ward hunt­ing and back­ward hunt­ing. When learn­ing Sted­man we worked these sixes out then recast them into the tra­di­tion­al Sted­man chunks of work — first whole turn, first half turn, second half turn, last whole turn. But it can also be help­ful to ring it as altern­ate sixes of for­ward and back­ward hunt­ing. This helps to keep the sixes dis­tinct, and to remem­ber which is a quick six and which a slow six (which helps you tell anoth­er bell how to come in, quick or slow, if neces­sary). In addi­tion, calls of ‘bob’ (or ‘single’) are made at the pen­ul­tim­ate stroke of each six, so remem­ber­ing where the sixes are helps you know when to call the bobs, without hav­ing to over­lay them on the whole and half turn structure.

x slow six = back­ward hunt­ing, so lie in 3rd place
x
-x-
xand lead at back­stroke and handstroke
x
-x-

xquick six = for­ward hunt­ing, so lead at hand and back
x
-x-
x lie in 3rd place, back and hand
x
-x-

xslow six = back­ward hunting
-x-
x lie in 3rd place, hand and back
x
-x-
x

-x- quick six = for­ward hunting
x lie in 3rd place, back and hand
x
-x-
xlead at hand and back
x

-x- slow six = back­ward hunting
xlead at back and hand
x
-x-
x lie in 3rd place, hand and back
x

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learning Yorkshire Surprise Major

Home­work time again. This time we’ve been told to learn York­shire (York­shire Sur­prise Major) for next week. It’s been a while since I set out to learn a new meth­od – per­haps it’s becom­ing easi­er. We shall see.

York­shire is sim­il­ar in parts to Cam­bridge (the meth­od, not the geo­graphy, that is). Where­as Cam­bridge con­tains ‘Cam­bridge places’, York­shire has a short­er form ‘York­shire places’ or ‘short places’ of dodge, make places, dodge (where­as in Cam­bridge it is: dodge, make places, dodge, make places, dodge). Places are made in 3–4 and in 5–6 up and down. Here for example is how you ring York­shire places in 3–4
up:

-x——
x—– York­shire 3–4 places up
x—-
x—–
x—-
x—-
x—–
x—–
x—-
x—–
x—-
—-x— and carry on up

The back­work is identic­al to that in Cam­bridge – and indeed, York­shire is identic­al to Cam­bridge if you are above the treble. This means that whenev­er you pass above the treble you do whatever you would have done in Cam­bridge if you had passed the treble at that point, and this con­tin­ues until you pass below the treble. Now if only I could ring Cam­bridge by the treble this might be some help!

York­shire also includes the front­work of Cam­bridge, but it is split into two sep­ar­ate halves, and you don’t get to dodge or make seconds over the treble in either half.

First thing is to try and remem­ber the order of work, which looks like this, assum­ing we are ringing the 2.

dodge down with the treble
treble bob up
triple-dodge in 5–6 up
2 & 1 at the back (double dodge 7–8 up, lie, single dodge 7–8 down)
dodge 5–6 down

straight down to the lead
second half of front­work (dodge down, lead, make 2nds, dodge down, dodge up)
straight up

York­shire places in 5–6 up
treble bob at the back (dodge 7–8 up, lie, dodge 7–8 down)
York­shire places 3–4 down
dodge and lead
York­shire places 3–4 up

dodge 5–6 up
backwork
dodge 5–6 down

York­shire places 3–4 down
lead and dodge
York­shire places 3–4 up
treble bob at the back
York­shire places 5–6 down

first half of the front­work (dodge down, dodge up, make 2nds, lead, dodge up)

dodge 5–6 up
1 & 2 at the back
triple-dodge 5–6 down
treble bob down to the lead
dodge 1–2 up with the treble
make 2nds place

Armed with this inform­a­tion we can write out a plain course of York­shire, here giv­en for the 3 …

(more…)

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