Thinking allowed

more Stedman

on Thursday, 2 August 2007 at 9.54 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as bellringing, conducting

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-
x– and lead at back­stroke and handstroke
x–
-x-

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

x– slow 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-
x– lead at hand and back
x–

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